
Class; -^^^uhx/Q 



Book 



A.J 



Copyright))^. 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSm 



X 







WILLIAM D. BOYCE. 



THE 

HAWAIIAN ISLANDS 



AND 



PORTO RICO 



ILLUSTRATED 



By 

WILLIAM D. BOYCE 



)> a , 



PUBLISHER OF THE SATURDAY BLADE, CHICAGO LEDGER, 
"the FARMING BUSINESS/' AND THE "INDIANA 
DAILY times/' 



RAND McNALLY & COMPANY 

CHICAGO NEW YORK 






Copyright, 1914 

BY 

W. D. BOYCE 



DEC 14 1914 



aA387927 



INTRODUCTION 

IN SELECTING from my larger book, United States Colo- 
nies and Dependencies, sections for this smaller volume, I 
have taken two of the best examples of our colonial rule, the 
Hawaiian Islands, in the Pacific, and Porto Rico, in the Atlan- 
tic. One lies some 2,000 miles southwest of San Francisco, 
the other 1,400 miles southeast of New York, and both are 
tropic, lying almost in the same degree of latitude. A line 
drawn east and west through Hawaii and Porto Rico passes 
just north of the Panama Canal. This being so, the impor- 
tance of these islands as United States possessions becomes 
apparent at once, and information relative to them of value 
to all. 

Few of us have appreciated how favorably these islands 
are placed as United States naval bases, the one facing Europe 
eastward from the Canal, the other facing the Orient west- 
ward from the Canal, each a great natural outpost lying in the 
central ocean track of the world's future commerce. In the 
pages that follow the reader will find an account of what we 
are doing in the way of making Pearl Harbor, in the Hawaiian 
Islands, a naval base and military stronghold. But at Porto 
Rico, our main outpost in the south and east — in the direction 
of Europe, Asia, Africa and South America — so far as 
fortifications are concerned, we are ''going slow." It is my 
opinion that a naval base, fortified with guns of the largest 
caliber and longest possible range, should be prepared in San 
Juan and other good harbors on the island, making an ocean 
stronghold from which our fighting craft might operate, or 
in which they might find shelter, in case of war. For who 
knows upon what day war may come? If we ever face the 
need, and have not prepared such a base, it will then be too 
late. 

Aside from the importance of these colonies as military 
outposts, their acquisition was a distinct addition to the area 
and wealth of the United States. The taking over of the 
Hawaiian Islands, August 12, 1898, added to the area of our 

vii 



viii INTRODUCTION 

soil 4,125,000 acres, much of which is exceedingly productive. 
When one considers that last year the value of our commer- 
cial sales to Hawaii amounted to over $29,000,000, and theirs 
to us over $42,000,000 — of which $37,000,000 was for sugar — 
and that the assessed value of Hawaiian property is at pres- 
ent over $175,000,000, the raising of the Stars and Stripes over 
these islands is seen to have been an event of first-class impor- 
tance. As the years go by the increase of our commerce with 
these islands, and their immense value to us as a military 
stronghold, I predict, will make their taking over seem one of 
our wisest and most timely acts of statesmanship. 

As for Porto Rico, that fell into our lap as a *'war-plum," 
adding 2,198,400 acres to our domain. Its soil and products 
are much the same as those of the Hawaiian Islands, and the 
fact that its exports to us last year aggregated over $40,000,- 
000, and our sales to them exceeded $33,000,000, the commer- 
cial importance to us of this "war-plum" becomes obvious. As 
an example of what can be done in the way of fair-dealing and 
benefits given, our treatment of Porto Rico as a colony is one 
of the best. In matters of moral and educational uplift, in 
respect to the physical health of its people, and in material 
improvements, our adoption of Porto Rico has been a blessing 
to the island and its people. Located as it is within *'the 
favored zone of plenty," and enjoying a stable and just gov- 
ernment, this island possession of ours will, without much 
question, continue to reflect credit both upon itself and the 
great people of which it has become a part. 

This book is only a part of my complete work, United 
States Colonies and Dependencies, the copy for which was 
prepared and printed originally in The Saturday Blade, one of 
our four papers. In securing the matter and photographs I 
spent over a year and traveled about fifty thousand miles. 

Very truly, 



^^jr^^TT^-^-^ -^ 



CONTENTS 
THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS 



CHAPTER 

I. OCEAN AND ISLANDS 

II. HAWAII OF TODAY 

III. A RACE MELTING-POT 

IV. OUR MID-OCEAN PLAYGROUND 

V. OUR OCEAN STRONGHOLD 

VI. KING CANE AND HIS COURT . 

VII. SOME GREAT VOLCANOES 

VIII. THE LEPER COLONY . 



PAGE 

I 

l6 

28 

40 

50 

59 

69 
76 



PORTO RICO 



I. FIRST GLIMPSES 

II. PORTO Rico's PEOPLE 

III. HOOKWORM AND PLAGUE 

IV. PORTO Rico's SCHOOLS 

V. RESOURCES AND TRADE 



82 

94 

107 

124 



IX 



THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS 

Area in square miles 6,446, population 1914, estimated, 200,000; 
of this number 25,000 are natives and about 45,000 of 
Caucasian extraction; the balance are half-breeds, with 
about 100,000 Japanese and Chinese — Capital, Honolulu, 
population about 55,000 — Chief resources, sugar, pineapples, 
coffee, honey, hides, fruits, rice, wool, tobacco, cotton and 
rubber — Exports to foreign countries, 1913, $758,546; im- 
ports, $6,0^^,5^1 ; imports from United States, 1913, $2p,- 
I2p,40p, exports to United States, same period, $42,713,2^4, 
of which sum $37,707,820 was for sugar — Total assessed 
value of property in islands, 1913, $175,201,161 — Present 
Governor, Hon. Lucius E. Pinkham. 

CHAPTER I. 

OCKAN AND ISLANDS. 

ON THE bosom of the vast Pacific, either through peace 
or by war, the inevitable struggle for the final world 
supremacy is likely to be decided. The position and relations 
of mankind in the Occidental portion of the earth have, for the 
most part, been fought out upon the waters of the Atlantic 
Ocean and its shores. But the heave and surge of changing 
human forces are active in the Orient, the meeting of the 
tides of the white and yellow races, where two-thirds of the 
world's population lives ; hence, the Pacific is "the Ocean with 
a Future" and tremendously important and interesting. The 
United States owns many of its islands, and is destined to play 
the chief role in coming events in that quarter of the world. 

It is an ocean rife with romance and mystery, and so large 
that the human mind falters in trying to grasp its extent. 
Yellow men and dark-skinned people dwelt upon its islands and 
the great Eastern lands that border it, through ages and ages 
before Europe discovered them. But change came, the day 
dawned. From the Orient came the first settlers of the Ameri- 
can Continent, by way of cold Siberia and Alaska. 

I 




COCONUT PALMS, HAWAII. 



HAWAIIAN ISLANDS 3 

Four hundred years ago, on September 25, 15 13, the west- 
ern shore of this greatest of oceans was first seen by a white 
man. That day Balboa, its discoverer, looked out upon it from 
a hill of the Isthmus of Panama. It was a momentous day 
for mankind, and yet the white man has gone but little farther 
west. 

However, thousands of miles away across the wide waters, 
and more than two hundred years before, a white man had 
skirted the far-off eastern shores of the mighty sea. That was 
Marco Polo, the Venetian. His history is one of the world's 
great stories. His father and uncle, although merchants, were 
adventurers at heart and set out on distant trails "to increase 
their wealth and enlarge their knowledge of the world." They 
spent twenty-five years in traveling through the Orient, and at 




SCENE ON THE ISLAND OF OAHU. 



4 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS 

the age of seventeen young Marco accompanied his father to 
the eastern Hmits of Asia. He Hved in Peking, "in Far Cathay," 
for many years, as guest and hostage of the Grand Khan. At 
last his opportunity came to return to Venice when an Oriental 
sovereign, then ruling in Persia, desired to marry a Mongol 
princess. A deputation was sent to ask for her hand and the 
offer was accepted. But when the lady attempted to journey 
to her lord overland, she found the country unsettled and was 
obliged to return home. Then Marco Polo saw his chance. 

"Let me take the Princess to Persia by sea," he said, and 
the Grand Khan consented. Fourteen ships, provisioned for 
three years, set sail down the Pei-ho River from Peking and 








NATIVE HAWAIIAN SPEARING FISH. 



HAWAIIAN ISLANDS 5 

the first recorded voyage on the Pacific was begun. This was 
in 1291. 

Out on the Yellow Sea they sailed, Marco in command, 
and in three months reached the island of Sumatra ; then 
through the Indian Ocean, beset by adverse winds and attacked 
by pirates. But Persia was reached at last. In the meantime 
the prospective groom had died, but his son willingly married 
the foreign bride "and they lived happily ever after." 

Marco kept on to Italy and published his famous map and 
an extravagant description of his travels. While more than 
two hundred years ahead of Balboa, he little suspected the 
magnitude of the waters on which he had sailed, an ocean over 
10,000 miles wide at the equator and of nearly equal length, 
containing double the volume of the Atlantic, its nearest rival. 

It remained for Magellan in his marvelous voyage of cir- 
cumnavigation of the globe to know its immensity. "It is a 
sea so vast that human mind cannot grasp it," he wrote. 

Born of Portuguese parentage and of noble blood, as was 
Balboa, Magellan made his first voyage to the East Indies, to 
the Spice Islands. Learning of Balboa's discovery, the idea 
came to him that this great "South Sea" might stretch west- 
ward to the very islands he had visited. Seven years later he 
set sail for the Spanish Crown, with five little vessels, the 
largest only one hundred and twenty tons. Crossing the South 
Atlantic, and experiencing treachery and mutiny, he at last 
reached *'an opening like unto a bay," and the long sought 
channel was found. At Cape Pillar, the western end of the strait, 
he found placid waters, hence the name "Pacific," or peace- 
ful, ocean, which is not always true of those waters by any 
means. Then across the immense ocean Magellan sailed from 
the strait, north of Tierra del Fuego, which bears his name, to 
the island in the Philippines which holds his grave. 

Two hundred and fifty-eight years later, the famous James 
Cook, an English naval captain, plowed a straight furrow from 
south to north on the Pacific, from the tropical Society Isles to 
the seal lands of the Bering Sea. Like Magellan, he was killed 
by the natives and lies in an island grave. 



HAWAIIAN ISLANDS 



Ocean greyhounds have taken the place of the outrigger 
canoes of the savages which dared the deep in Cook's day, and 
still put out occasionally from island shores. Floating palaces 
carry us to the Asiatic coast from which the junks of the 
ancients still set sail. Advancing and arrested races meet. 




OLD-TIME HAWAIIAN MUSICIANS 
AND A HULA-HULA DANCER. 



But China, the mighty Rip 
Van Winkle, wakens, and Japan has already 
won a place among the great nations of the 
world. The Philippines, Gems of the East, 
have become our foster-children, and 
Hawaii, Pearl of all the Pacific, our very 
own. Whether we believe it wise or not, it 
is inevitable that a great continental nation, 
like the United States, should have outlying 
territories and island possessions in the seas 
that wash its shores. It is a matter of self- 
protection as well as a demand of com- 
merce. Hence, Porto Rico, the Philippines, 
Hawaii, Alaska and the Panama Canal Zone. 



HAWAIIAN ISLANDS 7 

To us the Hawaiian group of islands is very important. 
Their history is strange, misty, romantic. Their original 
inhabitants apparently came from the Orient. Out onto the 
greatest of all oceans primitive people set sail in their crude 
canoes far back in the shadowy, prehistoric past. They 
had been driven to the very fringe of the Asiatic continent by 
more warlike tribes, to the Straits Settlements of today. Now 
Mongol hordes from the North still forced them on. Passing 
the New Hebrides and Solomon Islands, where ferocious black 
cannibals lived, these gentle brown voyagers came out upon 
the great unknown waters which we call the Pacific Ocean. 
With their domestic animals, food-plants and household gods, 
they sailed with the winds to Hawaii and other islands farther 
south. And so Polynesia was peopled. 

At least this is the way I see it. The Hawaiians will tell 
you a different story. Wakea and his wife. Papa, arrived first, 
they say, just after creating the earth. Then Hawaii-loa, a 
bold seaman, came from the west, and other people from the 
south in large double canoes. The menehunes, or fairies, 
crept out of the forest at night and built huts, boats and temples 
of worship for the newcomers. And thus the legends run 
down until they blend into history. 

Without doubt, all the people of Polynesia are of one race. 
From Hawaii to New Zealand, from Easter Island to Samoa, 
we find the same arts, customs and folklore and the languages 
are closely related. The story of the early life of the Hawai- 
ians, and the coming of the white man to their shores is worth 
relating. 

For centuries these happy children of the Great Ocean lived 
in ignorance of the white-skinned people. Balboa, claiming 
the Pacific and all the lands that bordered it for the Crown of 
Spain, little dreamed of these palm-encircled islands. Magel- 
lan, first of white men to cross this ocean, passed them by. 
Sir Francis Drake, following in Magellan's wake, missed them. 
And, marvel of marvels ! The galleons of Spain, plowing 
their clumsy way from Mexico to Manila twice a year for two 
hundred and fifty years, failed to discover them ! I have heard 



8 



HAWAIIAN ISLANDS 



that the secret archives of Spain made record of their exist- 
ence, but I doubt it, for the Spanish navigators seemed alto- 
gether ignorant of this haven lying between their New and 
Old World possessions. 

It is pleasant to picture the island life in those early days. 




A BELLE OF HAWAII. 



HAWAIIAN ISLANDS 9 

The great sea-going canoes were from fifty to one hundred 
feet long and six to eight feet deep. A large company went on 
voyages from island to island, the chief and his family sitting 
on a mat-covered platform above the bronze paddlers. The 
sails were made from strips of matting. Great gourds served 
as water bottles. Pigs, dogs and chickens were carried alive 
and the taro plant and breadfruit were part of the cargo. The 
pilot steered by the stars. Sometimes many canoes formed a 
squadron, the chief pilot guiding them all. A strange contrast, 
this, to the ocean greyhounds which ply between Hawaii and 
New Zealand today, and our Pacific Coast. 

These early islanders were expert fishermen, using hook 
and line, nets, spears, and wicker baskets. They could fairly 
outswim the fish. Nature supplied everything they needed 
from the bone and shell for their fishhooks to the olona shrub 
for their nets. The hardwood for their canoes, the calabashes 
for their household implements, the roots for basket weaving — • 
all grew in abundance. 

Before building a canoe, they offered a prayer to the gods 
and the priest of the village went into the forest with the men 
to choose the right kind of tree. Koa, the Hawaiian mahogany, 
was first choice. Many of the outrigger canoes which the 
traveler sees today in Pacific island ports is the type which has 
been in use for centuries. 

Hawaiian farmers raised taro, yams, bananas and sweet 
potatoes, and very early the sugar cane was brought to them. 
From the taro root poi, the chief article of food, was made. It 
corresponds with the cassava of South America, made from 
the manioc plant. 

Among all primitive people baskets are woven, as they must 
have a way of carrying things. The fiber of a tree, well beaten, 
was commonly utilized as a garment. The most of the 
Hawaiian fiber garments were beaten from the tvauke tree, 
which was cultivated for the purpose. 

The Incas of Peru wore feather garments as a mark of 
nobility, and so did these early Pacific chiefs. Helmets, capes 
and headdresses of great beauty were woven by the women for 



10 



HAWAIIAN ISLANDS 



the ornamentation of their lords. A tall chief decorated with 
multi-colored feathers must have been a gorgeous sight, and 
formidable as well, when equipped with a great adz weighing 
twelve pounds, useful in the felling of tree or foe. 

We must not picture these people as always at work and 
war, for games, songs and dances played an important role in 
their care-free lives. Many of the national songs and char- 
acteristic dances have come down to the present day, and form 
the chief attraction to tourists visiting the islands. 

The people lived in grass houses, but sometimes built stone 




HAWAIIAN HUT. FEW OF THIS TYPE ARE NOW LEFT. 

walls about the huts as a protection. A few of these walls still 
stand, but there are no great monuments of the aborigines on 
any of the eight islands of the Hawaiian group, as on Easter 
Island. 

One stormy night, way back in November, 1736, a boy was 
born in Hawaii, who was destined to become Kamehameha the 
Great, and unite all the islands into one kingdom. He played 
at surf-riding and hurling the spear with the other lads and 
worked in the fields with a will, but very early his companions 
felt his superiority. He was stronger and braver than they. It 
was long before he ascended the throne. It was while he still 




STATUE IN HONOLULU OF KAMEHAMEHA THE GREAT. 



12 



HAWAIIAN ISLANDS 



lived with his uncle, King Kalaniopuu, that James Cook, the 
English explorer, discovered the islands. On his way from the 
far South to the Bering Sea, Cook accidentally sighted Oahu, 
on which the city of Honolulu is now situated. Later he landed 
on Kauai and Niihau, a little to the northwest. 

The natives were terrified at the sight of the strange ships 
and said, "A forest has risen from the sea." Cook stayed long 
enough to trade nails and iron for food and water and was 
very kindly treated by the dark-skinned people. 

The following year he came again to winter in the sunny 
isles, and Kamehameha, always fearless, accepted an invitation 
to remain all night aboard one of the ships. After a month 
of hospitalities on either side, the strangers seem to have 
outstayed their welcome. Many stories have been told of how 
Cook met his death, but it is certain that he was stabbed in the 
back by one of the Hawaiians. His monument is at Keala- 
kekua Bay, not far from 
the spot where he fell. 

Now other strangers 
arrived, from England, 
France and Asia, traders 
and missionaries, and Ha- 
waiian boys were taken 
away to be educated in civ- 
ilized lands. Kamehameha 
came to the throne and de- 
termined to unite all the 
islands under his rule. He 
did this and more. He was 
fair to foreigners and did 
his best to keep them in the 
country to teach his people 
new ways. He granted them 
lands free from rent. To- 
day he stands out as the 
greatest character in Ha- 




CAPTAIN COOK S MONUMENT. 



HAWAIIAN ISLANDS 13 

waiian history, for, while he respected all of the old customs 
of his people, he changed their way of living little by little, pre- 
paring them for civilization and Christianity. He was far 
ahead of his time. A hundred years after Cook's discovery the 
people erected a monument to their beloved "Kamehameha the 
Great" in a park in Honolulu. 

American missionaries reached the islands in 1820 and the 
most of our early knowledge of the Hawaiians came to us 
through them. They were teachers, above all things, and per- 
formed a noble work, with kindness and tolerance, also with 
an eye to business. 

There have been four other rulers by the name of Kame- 
hameha since the first one reigned, and Kamehameha UI. 
renounced the throne for British rule. This did not last long, 
however, for in 1843 came Restoration Day, when the Hawai- 
ian flag was again raised. 

Kalakaua, the last native king, died in 1891 at the Palace 
Hotel in San Francisco, and the cry was still "Hawaii for the 
Hawaiians," but by this time there were many aliens on the 
islands and little of the native stock left of the reigning type. 
Kalakaua's sister was proclaimed Queen under the title of 
Liliuokalani, but a republican form of government followed 
two years later. 

When we went to war with Spain, the possession of Hawaii 
became a very important matter. Symptoms of annexation 
had been conspicuous for some time, and three months after 
the beginning of the war. President McKinley approved the 
bill making the island republic a part of the United States. 

The official taking over of this group, "the fairest fleet of 
islands anchored in any sea," while pathetic, was most 
impressive. It was the echo of Dewey's guns at Manila that 
was heard in Honolulu August 12, 1898, when one flag 
went down amid the roar of saluting cannon, and another 
went up to take its place. A man who was there on that 
memorable day told me that only a small crowd was present 
and every one very quiet. The ceremony was short and sad. 
A republic was being absorbed. A nationality was being snuffed 



14 



HAWAIIAN ISLANDS 



out like a candle. Naturally it was not a joyous affair. When 
it was over, women, wearing the American emblem, wiped 
their eyes — even men who had been strong for annexation 
had a lump in their throats. 

As for the Hawaiians, none were present. They kept to 
their homes, away from streets and shops. The crowd in front 
of the Executive Building was composed of Americans, Por- 
tuguese, Japanese and Chinese. 

The ceremonies carried all the tension of an execution. It 
was more like a funeral than a fete. Rear Admiral Miller 




THE STARS AND STRIPES WAVING OVER HAWAII. 



HAWAIIAN ISLANDS 15 

landed men from the warship Philadelphia. Three marines 
walking apart carried a great roll in their arms, the American 
flag. A gentle rain was falling. When United States Minister 
Sewell had finished his short, dignified speech, the Hawaiian 
flag, which was proudly waving, sank for the last time as the 
Government band played the national anthem, "Our Very Own 
Hawaii." All heads were uncovered and many were bowed. 
In the distance the twenty-one gun salute to the falling flag 
from the battery of the Philadelphia boomed out. Then at a 
signal the ''Star Spangled Banner" burst from the Philadel- 
phia's band, as the big thirty-foot flag went to the peak. The 
clouds broke. The blue sky showed overhead. The most 
beautiful flag on land or sea caught the breath of a passing 
breeze and flung itself wide over the fairy islands, a promise 
to Hawaii, "for better or for worse, in sickness or in health," 
wedlock forever with the "land of the f^ee and the home of the 
brave." And who will dare to take this flag down? 

To the former Governor of the islands, Hon. Walter F. 
Frear, much credit is due for the intelligent handling of gov- 
ernmental matters in Hawaii. Hon. Lucius E. Pinkham, the 
present Governor, was appointed November 29, 1913. Though 
not highly pleased with the appointment, the people of the 
islands are hoping for creditable results. 



CHAPTER 11. 



HAWAII OF TODAY. 

6 '/^^N THE edge of the world my islands lie," sings Mary 

V^ Dillingham Frear, wife of the ex-Governor of Hawaii, 
in one of her charming Pacific poems, and the people of Hono- 
lulu will grant this to poetic license. But they deeply resent 
that this is about where most of us locate the Plawaiian Islands. 

This is especially true east of the Rocky Mountains. As 
one travels west, however, one's viewpoint gradually changes. 
On the Pacific Coast, Hawaii is no longer ''those Sandwich 
Islands overseas," but a wide-awake American territory just a 
little farther on. In San Francisco and Seattle the people are 
as closely in touch with Honolulu 
commercially as with New York. 

We sailed from the Golden 
Gate to Honolulu under the Ameri- 
can flag and, with the exception of 
a few tourists bound for the Orient 
and a lot of little ''Chinks," as stew° 
ards and cabin boys, the people on 
board were all live Americans on 
their way from one of Uncle Sam's 
ports to another, on business or on 
pleasure. 

In San Francisco one has the 
choice of three steamer lines to the 
islands, all flying the Stars and 
Stripes. A fourth line, Japanese, 
is debarred by our coastwise ship- 
ping law from carrying passengers 
between two American ports, al- 
though tickets are sold on the "Jap" 

l6 ROYAL PALMS IN HONOLULU. 




HAWAIIAN ISLANDS 17 

line from San Francisco to Manila. The status of the Philip- 
pines seems to be represented by an interrogation point in this 
flag-sailing matter. 

All of these steamer lines have a working agreement on 
passenger and freight rates and have also adjusted the speed 
question, giving proper consideration to fuel consumption. 
There is no record-breaking here, as between Vancouver and 
Yokohama. Many of the Pacific steamers have served a long 
apprenticeship on the Atlantic before being moved over to this 
larger sphere. With a fresh coat of paint and a change of 
name, they begin life all over again. From the moment they 
plow the waters of the Pacific, their increase in tonnage is 
most remarkable. I know one old boat, scarred from battles 
with many a Caribbean hurricane. Like some other old heroes 
it wore out its welcome and "went West." On the Atlantic its 
rating was 4,500 tons. On the Pacific it became a 9,000 tonner. 
There is a difference in the two methods of computing sizes. 
On the Atlantic net tonnage is considered, while on the Pacific 
it is displacement. 

We sailed from San Francisco early Thursday afternoon 
and on the following Wednesday morning at daybreak sighted 
the islands. There are twelve in the group, but only eight are 
inhabited, in the order of their size : Hawaii, Maui, Oahu, 
Kauai, Molokai, Lanai, Niihau, and Kahoolawe. 

Molokai is seen first in the distance by east-bound ships. 
Then Oahu, on which Honolulu is situated, comes into view 
close at hand, a thing of beauty in the clear morning air. In 
shape it looks like a Chinese dragon, a shining green dragon, 
creeping over the sparkling blue waters. Oahu is forty-six 
miles long and twenty-five miles wide and has two mountain 
ranges. Coasting a jagged line of purple peaks, "fire-born and 
rain-carved," the ship rounds a fine promontory known as Dia- 
mond Head, the Hawaiian Gibraltar which guards Honolulu. 

The traveler familiar with tropical settings is apt to picture 
Hawaii's capital as a second Rio de Janeiro or Funchal. But 
do not look for red-tiled roofs and multi-colored walls here or 
you will be sadly disappointed. The background of verdure- 



i8 



HAWAIIAN ISLANDS 



clad hills, crowned with mist, is all that the artist could ask for, 
but the town looks like any other American city of 55,000 
inhabitants, with the usual number of factories and chimneys. 
"Why, it's as smoky as Pittsburgh !" exclaimed a girl with 
a camera, and I must confess that it impressed me as a hive of 
industry. It is strange how those old schoolbook pictures of 
Hawaiian grass huts and hula dancers have clung to us all 
these years. The early New England missionaries began the 
transformation back in 1820. Their children and grandchil- 
dren kept up the work, and, it is said, own nearly the whole 
group of islands, so Americanization has been continuous. 
The Hawaiians as a people are no more. They have been 
absorbed in Uncle Sam's great melting-pot. If you ever 
go to Hawaii do not expect brown-skinned natives, bedecked 
with wreaths, waiting for you on the pier. Instead you will 
find hotel runners and motor drivers — there are 1,200 automo- 
biles in the city. You will skim up well-paved streets to a great 
metropolitan hotel where a Japanese bellboy will show you to 
your room, overlooking a noisy business street. You are still 
a bit dazed. Can this be the land of Aloha ? 




BIRD S-EYE VIEW OF 



HAWAIIAN ISLANDS 



19 



Honolulu's best friends can hardly claim that man's work 
here harmonizes with Nature's. The piles of coal on the water- 
front, the dust on the streets, the rush and scramble everywhere 
are found in all ports where commerce is spelled with a big 
"C." The business portion of the city is not a success archi- 
tecturally. There are a few fine fireproof blocks with nonde- 
script neighbors. 

"Oh! just wait until you see the home section," said the 
hotel clerk. "Honolulu has the gardens all right!" 

There is a splendid electric-car service, but most tourists 
patronize the automobiles, parked in a most formidable row 
opposite Young's Hotel. 

The Executive Building, formerly the Royal Palace, sur- 
rounded by a park, is the show place down town. It was 
erected in 1880 of concrete and highly ornamented by royal 
command. Today it is used by both branches of Congress and 
by Government officials. The golden crown still surmounts 
each window, and in the throne-room, where territorial laws 
are enacted today, hang oil paintings of Kanaka royalty inter- 
spersed with great canvases of European rulers, friendly gifts 






■ I y-. .--i^ . vtita.vPT' -j^r 




HONOLULU AND ITS HARBOR. 




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w 



HAWAIIAN ISLANDS 



21 




FORT STREET^ HONOLULU^ THE PRINCIPAL BUSINESS STREET. 




THRONE-ROOM IN THE EXECUTIVE BUILDING^ FORMERLY 
THE PALACE, HONOLULU. 



22 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS 

to the ''King of the Sandwich Islands." This building, flanked 
by Royal palms, is closely associated with the later history of 
Hawaiian rule. In its second year it weathered an insurrec- 
tion. Here Kalakaua, last of the native kings, who died in 
San Francisco, lay in state. Here Liliuokalani, his sister, who 
ruled after him, was tried for treason and imprisoned. 
Ex-Queen Liliuokalani still lives quietly in Honolulu, and as I 
motored away from the capital, the driver said : 

"Look into the carriage that's coming! There to the left, 
the surrey ! The two black horses ! She'll be on the back 
seat — the Queen!" 

I saw a gentle-faced old lady, brown of skin, wearing black 
and purple. The Queen is an aged lady now and is not so 
stout as old-time photographs portray her. She keeps closely 
to her home, known as Washington Place, a house much 
like others in its neighborhood, surrounded by a beautiful 
garden. President Cleveland offered to restore Liliuokalani 
to the throne if she would agree not to imprison her enemies. 
She firmly declined unless permitted to behead at least a dozen 
of the leading citizens. 

Oahu College is a landmark in Honolulu. It was started 
by the missionaries for the education of their children and 



BERNICE PAUAHI BISHOP MUSEUM, HONOLULU. 



HAWAIIAN ISLANDS 



23 



other foreign youngsters and is one of the oldest- — I believe the 
oldest — American college this side of the Missouri River. The 
capital of Hawaii was a thriving town, we must remember, 
before San Francisco was on the map. In the fifties and 
sixties, California children were sent over to Honolulu to be 
educated. Another interesting school is the Kamehameha 
School for Hawaiians situated just out of town. It was 
founded by the legacy of Bernice Pau-ahi Bishop, the last of the 
royal line of Kamehameha, who married the Hon. Charles 
Bishop, an American, who arrived in the islands as a cook on a 
sailing vessel and took a chance by marrying royalty. In her 
memory Mr. Bishop founded a Museum of Polynesian Eth- 
nology and Natural History, where I learned more about the 
ancient Hawaiians in one afternoon than I could by reading 
books through a lifetime. Often, seeing is knowing. 

_^ Andrew Carnegie 

donated $100,000 
for the library of 
Hawaii, the Legis- 
lature appropriat- 
ing an additional 





•'I *«««T J 1 ? I I i I I I I 1 1 i I 1 i 1 1 1 
h J 1 I J nj ^ f I « f I 1 i 1 I I I I I g 





UPPER PICTURE^ Y. M. C. A, BUILDING; LOWER, THE 
ALEXANDER YOUNG HOTEL, HONOLULU. 



24 



HAWAIIAN ISLANDS 




THE HOME OF THE LATE CLAUS SPRECKELS, FORMER SUGAR KING, 

HONOLULU. 

$25,000. It includes the valuable library of the Hawaiian His- 
torical Society. There is a splendid Y. M. C. A. building. The 
members went out with the idea of raising $100,000 in ten 
days, but so liberal was the giving that they received $150,000 
in six days and had to close the subscription list. 

I found the homes of Honolulu most attractive. They are 
built like those of southern California for air, light and veranda 
space. In fact, the veranda is the important feature here and 
bears the native name, lanai. It is wide and vine-shaded, over- 
looking the glory of Hawaii, the tropical garden. Every trav- 
eler from a temperate land marvels at a conservatory out of 
doors. Here the poinciana spreads its huge flaming umbrellas 




MR. BOYCE IN MR. DAMON'S BEAUTIFUL JAPANESE GARDENS 

NEAR HONOLULU. 




g 

< 
o 

I-l 
o 

o 

W 



< 

<; 



HAWAIIAN ISLANDS 27 

of orange or scarlet ; the golden shower hangs its clusters of 
yellow bells; the pride of India is a mass of lavender; while 
the cacia nodessa, loveliest of all, resembles a giant apple tree 
in blossom, with its great sheaves of pink bloom. Now just 
imagine a tangle of vines and creepers, great lily leaves, tasseled 
palms, gigantic banyans and you will see almost any one's 
garden in the Territory of Hawaii. The night-blooming cereus 
is one of the wonders. Near Honolulu, on Moanalua, the 
estate of Mr. Damon, are the wonderful Japanese Gardens, 
said to rival in beauty any of those in Japan. 

The one thing still Hawaiian about the town is the names 
of many of the streets. Nuuanu, Punahou and Alakea fall 
softly on foreign ears. King Street, Fort and Bishop show the 
American touch. There are churches on every street, churches 
of every denomination. In one of them, Kawaiahao, services 
are still conducted in the Hawaiian tongue. This church was 
dedicated in 1842 by the missionaries and is built of coral rock. 
The finest buildings of the city are of gray-blue native lava 
stone. 

A city, its buildings, streets, homes and gardens tell us much 
of a people, but after all we are always more interested in the 
people themselves. Hawaii is the Crossroads of the Pacific, 
where Asiatics by the thousands have come to join Uncle Sam^'J 
family ! It is worth studying. 



CHAPTER IIL 

A RACE MELTING-POT. 
fcfc/^^AN'T you tell 'em apart — the Chinese and the Japs?" 
V^y It was my Honolulu coachman, native of St. Louis, 
Mo., who asked. 

It was not easy. For an hour I had been trying to label 
them, with indifferent success. Of course I could distinguish 
the nationalities of the women, the glossy-haired Chinese with 
their jade ornaments and baggy trousers, as well as the little 
daughters of Nippon with their graceful kimonos and babies 
strapped to their backs. But the men ! Not so easy. All 
wore American clothes and there was no longer a pigtail in 
sight. Many Chinese have eyes minus the slant, and many 
Japanese look just like Chinese. In Hawaii they are particu- 
larly hard to distinguish from each other. 

These Asiatics, more than any other people in Honolulu, 
interested me because there were so many of them. At the 




MEN OF MANY LANDS ON HONOLULU WATERFRONT. 

28 



HAWAIIAN ISLANDS 



29 



last census there were 8o,ocm3 Japanese, over 20,000 of them 
born under the Stars and Stripes. Now there are more, for 
every month about 300 Japanese women arrive and every 
woman has a baby, after a while, born on American soil — a 
full-fledged American citizen. In twenty-one years he can 




LITTLE JAPANESE-AMERICANS„ 




o 



M 

Q 
W 
Q 
O 
O 
hJ 
M 
I 
W 

P-, 



o 

C/3 



HAWAIIAN ISLANDS 31 

vote ! Japan, unless our laws are changed, will some day con- 
trol the Hawaiian Islands with the franchise. 

The figures are startling. We put a check on Japanese 
immigration, some years ago, by a "gentlemen's agreement," 
between the two nations ; but evidently it did not apply to "the 
ladies." I straightway decided to look up a Government official 
and find out just what races are being admitted into our lodge 
through this side door, 2,000 miles from the mainland. I had 
not gone far with the investigation before it dawned on me 
that Hawaii is not only "The Crossroads of the Pacific," as 
acclaimed by its proud inhabitants, but also the place where the 
blood strains of the world are being crossed. Queer branches, 
these, being grafted onto our family tree — our oceanic melting- 
pot, where a new type of American is being produced. 

If you will pick up a Honolulu telephone book, you will 
discover whole pages of Ah's, more than would greet you at the 
finest exhibition of fireworks. There are "Ah Sams" and "Ah 
Sings" and yards of other "Ah's" — 20,000 Chinese in all on the 
islands — but they ship over to California for higher wages 
whenever they get a chance. 

"Do the Hawaiians marry the Orientals?" I asked an old 
settler. 

"The women do," he said. "They marry the Chinese, who 
make very good husbands. A Chinese not only works in the 
field, but helps his Hawaiian wife with the housework and 
'minds the children.' Hawaiian husbands play the guitar." 

The pure Hawaii»ans are decreasing over 12 per cent a year. 
There are only 25,000 of them left and the race is doomed to 
extinction ; but the strain will live on, in fact, it is on the 
increase. The number of part-Hawaiians has jumped up 60 
per cent during the last ten years. The native girls were 
sought in marriage by Europeans and Americans, as well as by 
the Orientals. They had the land. Today there are : Irish- 
Hawaiians, English-Hawaiians, French-Hawaiians, German- 
Hawaiians, Spanish-Hawaiians, Portuguese-Hawaiians and 
American-Hawaiians. The children resulting from these 
crosses are often rather attractive in appearance. 




HAWAIIAN HUMAN TYPES. 



HAWAIIAN ISLANDS 



33 



It is pathetic to note the passing of the Kanaka, as the 
Hawaiian loves to call himself. "And there was much in his 
method of government superior to ours," one deep American 
thinker and close observer informed me. 

"You see," he said, "they kept their race strong and fit until 
the coming of the white man with his 'improved civilization.' 
They got rid of their insane and depraved by sending word, on 
a dark night, that the gods wished to speak with them. Then 
a blow on the head at the temple door ! Now we acquit mur- 
derers, or board them at the expense of the nation, and encour- 
age the unfit to survive." 

I heard a story of a native on an island far to the south 
who came into court to claim title to a piece of land. The 
Judge said the man had no right to it, that it belonged to a 
missionary. 

"Oh, I know he did own it," said the native. "But my 
father ate him and absorbed the title !" 

When the white man first got control of the land in Hawaii, 
he set the native to work for him. But the Kanaka is not a 
good worker, so, at an early date, the planter imported Asiatics. 




FILIPINO IMMIGRANTS IN HAWAII. 



34 



HAWAIIAN ISLANDS 




JAPANESE LABORERS, HAWAII. 

The first country tapped was China, and the Celestials came in 
when Hawaii was still a kingdom. They came under contract to 
receive thirteen dollars a month, and it is now admitted that 
they are the best of the Orientals on the island. As faithful 
workers the Chinese are surpassed by the laborers of scarcely 
any other race. When Hawaii became a part of the American 
Union, Chinese were debarred and the planters turned to 
Japan. The Japs were good workers in those days and came 
in so fast that they overflowed into California, which brought 
a protest from the Coast laborers. 

During the days of Hawaiian rule, many Portuguese were 
brought from the Azores and Madeira. Their native lands 
are also volcanic islands where gardens smile, and they took 
kindly to their new environment. Today they are considered 
the best sort of citizens, honest and industrious. There are 
25,000 of them, as many as there are Hawaiians. 

Still, the labor proved inadequate for the working of the 
great sugar estates, so 5,000 Spaniards have been brought in; 
5,000 Porto Ricans, and a sample order of 2,000 Russians. 
Just to make sure that there are enough Asiatics, 5,000 Koreans 



HAWAIIAN ISLANDS 35 

have been imported! The expense, especially in the case of 
the European immigrants, has been enormous. It cost almost 
$1,000,000 to coax all these families here, a rather large sum 
for the landing of each man. 

As a Federal law prohibits ''the assisting of immigration 
with money privately contributed," an income tax was passed 
calling for two per cent on all incomes over $4,000. This 
seemed to solve the problem. But here the joker appeared! 
After the Territory of Hawaii had invested this fortune in 
imported labor, the California fruit growers and Alaska can- 
ners urged the workers "just a little farther on." "Stop it!" 
cried the Hawaiian planters and immediately made "the indu- 
cing of labor to leave the islands" a crime punishable by a 
heavy fine. But this did not wholly check the exodus. 

However, in workers imported from the Philippines the 
Hawaiian planters seem to have found labor which will "stand 
without hitching" and some 8,000 or 10,000 of them have 
arrived during the past three years. This may prove of benefit 
to the Philippines, as some of the men may carry home the 
industrial training received, but it adds still another touch to 
the color scheme of Hawaii. 

Now we have : Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Filipinos, Porto 
Ricans, Spaniards, Portuguese, Russians, 200 negroes from the 
Southern States, a few Hindus, some South Sea Islanders, and 
the Hawaiian half-bloods, besides the pure Hawaiians and 
the Caucasians. It is estimated that there are 45,000 Cau- 
casians in all on the islands, out of a population of 200,000, so 
every fourth inhabitant is white. 

There is a Honolulu romance surrounding — "a strange 
amalgamation, twixt two such funny nations" — the wedding 
of a Chinese and a Portuguese. Away back in 1858, Wing 
Ah Fong came over to Honolulu with a shipload of Celestials. 
Young, intelligent and genial, with a little capital, he soon 
became the leading silk and bric-a-brac merchant. He fell in 
love with pretty, dark-eyed Concepcion, daughter of a Por- 
tuguese sailor, and they were married in i860. Prospering, Ah 
Fong invested in sugar-cane fields and in ten years was worth 




UNDER THE TWO FLAGS, HONOLULU. 



HAWAIIAN ISLANDS 



37 




CHURCH IN HAWAII BUILT OF CORAL ROCK. 




THE ROYAL HAWAIIAN BAND. 



38 



HAWAIIAN ISLANDS 



$300,000, which steadily increased to $3,000,000. The family 
circle expanded at about the same gait until, in 1890, it con- 
sisted of three boys and thirteen girls. Ah Fong was a devoted 
father and was delighted that his daughters resembled their 
good-looking mother. He had a Concord coach built, in which 
he exhibited the entire family on four wheels, one of the sights 
of the island. On his firstborn, a boy, the father's interest, 
however, centered. 

In 1892, after months spent in arranging his business, the 
rich Chinaman sailed away with his eldest son to visit his boy- 
hood home in the Flowery Kingdom. Since then the streets 
of Honolulu have known him no more. But the hospitality of 
the Ah Fong mansion has never waned and the real estate has 
increased in value. In 1904 Captain Whitney, U. S. A., mar- 
ried Miss Harriet Ah Fong, and other Europeans and Ameri- 
cans have wedded 
her sisters. The 
girls have been 
noted for their 
beauty and talent, 
and a halo of ro- 
mance has clung 




to them, through 
all the changes 
which time has 
brought in these 
islands. But where 
are the father and 
brother ? Rumor 
has placed them 
in prominent posi- 
tions in the land of 
their ancestors. 




NATIVE HAWAIIAN GIRLS AT A PICNIC AND 
BATHING. 



i 



HAWAIIAN ISLANDS 39 

A drive through the tenement district of Honolulu reveals 
excellent sanitary conditions. Here people of alien races live 
in harmony, in spite of differing customs and language barriers. 
The immigrant children soon attend the public schools where 
only English is taught. The Chinese, especially, seem hungry 
for an English education. In the last class graduated from 
Oahu College, eleven out of the twenty- four were Chinese. All 
the races have their newspapers, the last to be launched being 
a Filipino daily. Chinese children soon adopt American dress, 
and the little almond-eyed lasses, bound for school, follow the 
latest Parisian mode even to the bows in their hair. 

When the public schools close at two o'clock, the Japanese 
children take up their studies again at the Japanese school, for 
the little brown men cling to their own language and customs, 
even though they are willing to learn about other people's. 
They, less than any of the others, adopt our American ways. 
They live in Hawaii and earn their money there, but they send 
much of it home to Japan. Probably the most ambitious people 
on earth, they are the least inclined to shift their nationality. 

H a real war cloud should ever gather between America and 
Japan you can be pretty certain that the Japanese on these 
islands, no matter where they were born, would fight for the 
Mikado. But Uncle Sam is not asleep. Quietly and stead- 
fastly he has been fortifying his mid-Pacific Isles, and 15,000 
soldiers and the mightiest guns on earth will guard the Terri- 
tory of Hawaii. 



CHAPTER IV. 



OUR MID-OCEAN PLAYGROUND. 

KAMEHAMEHA DAY came while I was in Hawaii. It is 
an anniversary in honor of the great Hawaiian ruler, first 
to surrender the feudal tenure of land for the benefit of the 
people. The celebrations have always been under the auspices 
of the Order of Kamehameha, and the principal feature has 
been aquatic sports, which every Hawaiian loves. 

It was a great day for Honolulu. Two world's records 
were broken ! When it comes to the royal sport of swimming, 
take off your hat to the mermen and mermaids of our mid- 







< 



DUKE P. KAHANAMOKU AND RUTH WAYSON STACKER, CHAMPION 

SWIMMERS OF THE WORLD. 

40 



HAWAIIAN ISLANDS 



41 



Pacific playground. The King and Queen of the surf both 
live in Hawaii. 

Ruth Wayson Stacker, a slim, graceful little nymph, lowered 
the world's swimming record for women for fifty yards, taking 
the championship from Fannie Durack of Australia. Duke P. 
Kahanamoku, who won the world's championship at Stockholm, 
Sweden, lowered his own record in three events. The Hui 
Nahu team lowered the three-hundred-yard relay — six men — 
race record, previously held by the New York Athletic Club. 

As the records were announced, one after another, the 
crowd went mad and cheered with all its might. As 5,000 
people were on hand, it was "some cheering." 

Kahanamoku is a great hero in Hawaii. Sent to the United 
States two years ago to compete for a place on the American 
team at the Olympic games, he made a brilliant showing, nota- 




SURF-RIDING IN OUTRIGGER CANOES, WAIKIKI BEACH. 



42 



HAWAIIAN ISLANDS 




SURF-RIDING ON BOARDS AT WAIKIKI BEACH, HONOLULU. 

bly at Chicago. Later he won the world's record at Stockholm. 
Honolulu gave him a royal welcome on his return home and he 
was lionized throughout the islands. A fund was collected with 
which to purchase a home for him at Waikiki, within the sound 
of the surf he so loves. 

There is no finer sea-bathing on earth than at Waikiki. This 
attractive suburb of Honolulu stretches along the shore from 
the city proper to Diamond Head. It boasts a splendid hotel 
and many fine residences, including the home of Prince Kuhio 
Kalanianaole, known as Prince Cupid, delegate to Congress 
from the Territory of Hawaii. 

The chief pastime at Waikiki is surf-riding, the national 
sport of old. It might be called *Vater-tobogganing." The 
great ocean roll, unhalted in its two-thousand-mile course, 
strikes a coral reef off the island, leaping over it in a mighty 
bound. Out from the beach swims a band of bronze athletes 
with their shining black surf-boards. Reaching the reef, they 
wait for a great wave and ride in on its crest. The most dar- 
ing stand erect with arms outstretched. The sight of a flock 



HAWAIIAN ISLANDS 



43 



of these water-birds skimming shoreward over the sparkling 
tropic sea is alone worth the voyage to Hawaii. 

In the old days the natives took great care of their surf- 
boards, rubbing them with coconut oil and wrapping them in 
tapa cloth after each outing. They were made of koa, the 
Hawaiian mahogany, and were longer than those in use today. 
A tamer sport, but one much in vogue with those who are 
not daring swimmers, is canoe-surfing, the outriggers on the 
long canoes making an upset next to impossible. Two popular 
clubs here are the Outriggers (a canoe club) and the Trail 
and Mountain Club, which has cut trails all over the island 
of Oahu, up to the highest peaks, making travel quite easy. 

The trans-Pacific yacht 
race is becoming a feature 
of Hawaii. In a recent con- 
test four yachts set sail from 
San Pedro, in southern Cali- 
fornia, for Honolulu, repre- 
senting the San Pedro, San 
Francisco, British Columbia 
and Honolulu clubs. The 
Lurline from San Pedro 
proved the winner. 




FLOWER SELLERS, HONOLULU. 



44 



HAWAIIAN ISLANDS 



Golf, polo, tennis, motoring, in fact, almost every branch 
of sport, has Hawaiian devotees. In the late afternoon the 
Country Club in Nuuanu Valley near Honolulu is the meeting 

place for society, as cosmopolitan 
and cultured a society as can be 
found in the largest American city. 
In depending on itself, Honolulu 
has gone ahead with tremendous 
bounds, and is far more metropoli- 
tan than many places of equal pop- 
ulation. No doubt its being such 
an important army post has had 
something to do with it. 

Every Washington's Birthday 
for the last eight years has been 
celebrated by a floral parade. Those 




FEMALE HAWAIIAN RIDING COSTUME. 



HAWAIIAN ISLANDS 45 

who have witnessed similar shows in Italy and California agreed 
that the one here February last established a world's record. 
Flowers have always been one of the distinctive features of 
the islands. The natives of old bedecked themselves with 
garlands, and the prettiest of all Hawaiian customs is the 
giving of leis, or ropes of flowers, in parting. Women sit in 
rows along the sidewalks offering blossom-chains to the passer- 
by. This soft tropical land seems a fitting home for the god- 
dess Flora. 

As an added attraction, last Floral Day, three thousand 
American soldiers paraded in the morning and were received 
by the Governor. The pageant in the afternoon showed six 
hundred decorated automobiles and other vehicles. While 
artificial flowers were used by some, because of their lasting 
quality, prizes were awarded only to natural flower exhibits. 

"Princesses" representing the islands of the group were a 
feature, with their pages and attendants. Then came the pa'ii 
riders, one hundred young native women wearing the pa'u cos- 
tume, peculiar to Hawaii, a most unusual garment to the 
stranger. It looks like a pair of elongated bloomers and would 
cause a sensation even in Central Park, New York. 

Baseball thrives in Hawaii. All races take to it. Great 
was the surprise, I may say consternation, when a team com- 
posed entirely of Chinese defeated the best nine the United 
States army could produce. 

From 8,000 to 10,000 tourists visit the islands each year. 
Many linger for months fascinated by the sports on land and 
sea. Just how much this ''crop" is worth to the island is hard 
to estimate, but it certainly reaches the million-dollar mark. 
This does not include the trans-Pacific passengers who stop 
here for a day en route to and from the Orient and Australia. 
There are several steamers each week, so foreign money helps 
''keep up the camp." Then there are the army transports 
bound for Manila. They leave San Francisco on the fifth of 
each month. Pay day is the tenth, just in time for Honolulu, 
and as they remain over night at the docks, there is little diffi- 
culty in annexing the soldier boys' pay envelopes. Consider- 



46 



HAWAIIAN ISLANDS 



able attention has been given by the Honolulu Promotion 
Committee to the rotation of crops of visitors who will shed 
coin into the local cash registers during the four seasons of the 
year. Formerly the hotels were crowded only in the winter, 
but each year finds ''the season" extended, and even the sum- 
mer now has its quota of visitors. 

It is a curious fact, but the Hawaiians have no word in their 
language to express the term "weather," due to the fact that 
there is but a slight range in temperature. The sea breeze is 
always blowing, so the islanders have the right to invite their 
fellow Americans over to play ''any old time." 

"He comes here to fish," remarked the hotel clerk in speak- 







SHARKS CAUGHT IN HONOLULU HARBOR. 



HAWAIIAN ISLANDS 47 

ing to me of a tanned New Yorker in corduroys. "Sharks! 
He's mad over them, and there are thousands in these waters. 
They catch 'em by spearing, the spear attached to a cord, and 
the rascals put up a tremendous fight. Bother the bathers? 
Not a bit of it! You see all our beaches are protected by a 
coral reef and the sharks won't pass it. They hate shallow 
water, as they must turn over either to attack or defend them- 
selves. But if you want to see some weird fishes, go up to the 
aquarium." 

No lesser authority than Dr. David Starr Jordan, president 
of Leland Stanford University, has declared that the Hono- 
lulu aquarium is second only in importance to the one in Naples, 
Italy, and that it surpasses all others in the beauty of its speci- 
mens. They certainly have tanked in a most remarkable lot of 
finny deep-sea comedians. There are some with double noses, 
others in convict garb. One wise old fish, with a number of 
ribbon tails, has a fiery red spot on the end of his nose like an 
old toper. Every color of the rainbow is displayed by this 
specimen of the finny tribe. 

The Japanese, who now practically control the deep-sea 
fishing, keep the aquarium supplied with "display fish" for a 
fancy price. Every effort to colonize these strange Hawaiian 
fish is said to have failed and they can be seen only in their 
native waters. One finds many of them for sale in the fish 
markets. 

The Chinese attend to the fish ponds, which were much in 
vogue in the days of the early Hawaiians. They have a system 
here of raising fish for food, within ponds adjacent to the sea. 
The Chinese took up the net dropped by the Kanakas and have 
made the business profitable. 

The most unique sport in the islands is "fishing" for flying 
fish with a shotgun. Launches are used and you take pot-shots 
at the buzzing blue fish on the wing. This makes a decided hit 
with the novelty-hunting tourist, who returns to the mainland 
with a mounted specimen of "a flying fish I shot down in Hono- 
lulu." A man who has established a record with clay pigeons 
remarked to me that this Hawaiian sport is like "shooting at a 



48 



HAWAIIAN ISLANDS 



blue rock during an earthquake." They recover the fish with 
a hand net and in contests the umpire acts as scorer. The best 
record attained up to the time of my visit was eight kills out 
of ten shots. As one has to shoot from a rolling, pitching 
boat, it proved to be about the best sport I ever had. 

At the time of my visit the more conservative people of the 




city were a bit doubtful as to the 
honor conferred upon them by 
the new and popular song: 
''Hula! Hula! Honolulu!" The 
young people seemed to like it, 
however, and I heard the chorus 
whistled on every street. 

"Yes, it's against the law to 
dance the hula," said a man of 
whom I inquired. "You see this 
is still a missionary land, lots of 
people descended from the good 
old stock, and they've used their 
influence against it. There is an 



EXAMPLES OF THE HULA-HULA 
DANCE, HAWAII. 



HAWAIIAN ISLANDS 49 

expurgated edition of the dance at the cheaper theaters to sup- 
ply a little local color for the tourists, and occasionally, on the 
quiet, there's a real dance, with the loud thumping missing, so 
as not to scare up the police." 

The hula-hula is peculiar to Hawaii, although dances 
resembling it are found among other races. It has a running 
accompaniment of song and clanging gourds, and the effect of 
this savage music on the dancers is magical. In gymnastic 
contortion and general muscular variation, the hula outclasses 
all other wild, primitive exhibitions. 

Another great Hawaiian custom is the luau, or native feast 
out-of-doors, the acme of hospitality. Roast pig, cooked with 
red-hot stones in an underground oven, is the leading dish ; 
and then there are fish of all kinds, breadfruit and royal pink 
poiy made from the taro plant. Every one sits about in a 
circle on the ground and dips his fingers into the calabash filled 
with poi, which does not look unlike corn meal. 

A few years ago a Congressional party visited the islands 
and a luau was served to them about every day. After two 
weeks of this woodland feasting, one of the Congressmen 
chanced to glance in at a window where a home meal was being 
prepared. Waving his arms frantically he called out to the 
others : 

"Come on, boys, something to eat at last ! A real beef- 
steak ! No more 'lulus' for me !" 



CHAPTER V. 

OUR OCEAN STRONGHOLD. 

THE original Hawaiian language is soft and melodious. It 
was reduced to writing by the American missionaries, 
who used but twelve letters to convey its five vowels and seven 
consonants — a, e, i, o, u, h, k, 1, m, n, p and w. There are 
shades of sound in the language that might have admitted of 
two or three more letters, but it was thought best to use but 
twelve letters. The words are always soft. Oahu, for exam- 
ple. Try to pronounce it. *'0-wah-hu." That's it ! Now try 
to remember it, for it means much to you and to me and to 
our country. The Stars and Stripes wave over it, and it prom- 
ises to be the most strongly fortified island in the world. We 
are spending millions on its defense, a guarantee that our flag 
will never be lowered to a foe from the East. 

But why did we select Oahu as our mid-Pacific stronghold? 
It is not the largest of the Hawaiian group. No, not the 
largest, but it has an invaluable possession, a landlocked harbor 
■ — Pearl Harbor — the only haven within a thousand miles in 
any direction. For many years — seventy at least — the great 
nations have coveted Oahu, with its harbor. Kaiser Wilhelm, 
Emperor of Germany, asked the late Claus Spreckels, Hawaiian 
sugar king, a German by birth but an American by adoption, to 
call on him in Berlin. The Kaiser urged Mr. Spreckels to 
shape affairs so that the flag of Germany might eventually 
wave over Hawaii. 

*T told him 'No !' " related Mr. Spreckels, accenting his 
decision by a thump on the table. 'T'U try to fix it so that 
the American flag shall wave over the islands !" 

Great Britain brought forth Queen Emma as a candidate 
for the throne, but the Americans in Hawaii selected King 

50 



HAWAIIAN ISLANDS 51 

Kalakaua, who had their interests at heart, outgeneraling their 
British cousins. 

France also played her hand and, when we finally annexed 
the islands, Japan entered a protest, which is still on file in 
Washington, with a lot of other objections to our running our 
own country. 

The vital strategic importance of Pearl Harbor was long 
known to our Department of State, and its possession was 
urged by wise and prudent naval officers, who claimed that 
this mid-ocean fortress, refuge, base and coaling station, was 
absolutely necessary for the protection, preservation and pros- 
perity of our twenty-five hundred miles of Pacific Coast. If 
we possessed the Hawaiian Islands and fortified them, no 
foreign navy, harborless within thousands of miles, could reach 
our west coast prepared to fight, much less to get away. 

President Grant recognized this, and back in 1873 sent 
General Schofield to the islands to select a site for a naval 
station. Schofield's report was favorable to Pearl Harbor and 
Congress was urged to act quickly, but it took eleven years to 
secure the right to fortify the harbor and twenty-odd years 
more before we began the work. 

Finally our army and navy officials took hold of the gigantic 
task of making Oahu as impregnable as Gibraltar or the Island 
of Malta. It did not take them long to decide on the fortify- 
ing of the extinct volcano, Diamond Head, the landmark of the 
island. A climb and a look around ! Then the largest mortar 
battery in the world was placed behind the mountain, the 
signaling being done from within the very crater itself. The 
ocean has been platted, target practice conducted, and when 
the order "Put one in square fifty-one !" is flashed to the bat- 
tery, the imaginary enemy in square fifty-one ''receives the 
message." Death and destruction belch forth on the phantom 
foe aiming to invade the islands. 

When the natives, still living in superstitious dread of the 
volcano goddess, first heard of our plans they decided we were 
mad. The goddess, they announced, would revenge the inva- 



52 



HAWAIIAN ISLANDS 



sion of her domain. Uncle Sam, however, had his nerve with 
him! 

Punch Bowl, a lesser extinct crater, has been surveyed, and 
every means will be employed in the defense of Pearl Harbor. 

All our army posts are on the southern and western slopes 
of the island. A mountain range protects Honolulu on the 
north and east. We have an artillery post at Fort Ruger, 
directly north of Diamond Head ; a battery of three-inch guns 
at Fort Armstrong and six and fourteen-inch guns at Fort de 
Russy, both between Diamond Head and Honolulu. Fort 
Kamehameha, near Pearl Harbor, and Fort Shafer, just out of 
Honolulu, are also equipped with high-power guns. 

The Army Board decided that 15,000 regular soldiers 
would be required to defend Oahu, augmented by the 3,000 
National Guard of Hawaii. In order to raise the requisite 
number of men the companies of infantry have been filled 
beyond their war strength, and it is proposed to raise them 
to 250 men each, which is double their war strength. It is 
true that in Europe they have companies of 250 men, but 
they have five officers to a company. Our companies have but 
three. 

There is a limit to the number of men which a given num- 




GENERAL VIEW OF PEARL 



HAWAIIAN ISLANDS 



53 



ber of officers can properly train in peace and efficiently handle 
on the battlefield in war. When that limit is passed, while the 
total number of men may be what is wished, the efficiency is 
far from being what it should be. In other words, after a 
regiment has reached a certain strength, instead of adding more 
men to that regiment in order to increase the force, more regi- 
ments should be added. 

Whenever the condition of our national defense is looked 
into grave defects always are found. A further examination 
will always show that these defects have been pointed out to 
Congress and that Congress has been pleased to disregard them. 
We are a democracy and democracies are slow in military 
matters. 

Practically all branches of the mobile forces in Oahu have 
been placed back on the uplands at Schofield barracks, eighteen 
miles from Honolulu. The soldiers at Schofield are so cen- 
trally placed that they can be rushed to the defense of any 
part of the island. 

Recently a mimic war was carried on by the troops, divided 
into two armies. The location of the barracks was approved, 
but it was decided that the garrison must be kept up to full 
strength. This has caused activity in recruiting centers on the 




HARBOR, OAHU ISLAND. 



54 



HAWAIIAN ISLANDS 



mainland and a special line of transports has been established 
between San Francisco and Honolulu. The capital of Hawaii 
has taken on a decidedly military appearance. 

"There is no use of your taking your camera or photog- 
rapher to Pearl Harbor or the forts," said a friend of mine 
in Honolulu. ''The Admiral and General don't care to have 
their works Wer-exposed' while their plans are still unde- 
veloped." 

I took the hint and went to Pearl Harbor alone. The 
world-renowned haven is eight miles from Honolulu. It con- 
tains from ten to twelve square miles of deep water and is 
absolutely calm in any weather. The difficulty of making it 
practicable lay in the bar at the entrance and in the crooked 
channel leading to the inner bay. The dredging of the bar was 
started in 1898 and completed in 191 1, the channel straightened, 
and the cruiser California steamed through the four-and-a-half- 
mile passage into the wonderful bay. The dredging alone cost 




UNITED STATES SOLDIERS IN HAWAII. 



HAWAIIAN IS LAND S 



55 



$3,000,000, but today our entire navy can find safe anchorage 

here, with miles of room 
for our navy-to-be. 

The harbor's shores are 
low and deeply indented. 
Emerald cane-fields come 
down to the water's edge, 
glistening rice fields and 
patches of taro. On the 
eastern shore are the seven 
great industrial buildings, 
barracks and machine 
shops, alongside the dry 
dock. Herein lies a trage- 
dy of failure. But we will 
try again; in the end Un- 
cle Sam usually succeeds. 
Our naval experts de- 
cided that a dry dock at 
Pearl Harbor was a neces- 
sity, and their engineers 
located the site after many 




UPPER PICTURE, PAPAYA FRUIT ; LOWER, BREADFRUIT, 

HAWAII. 



56 



HAWAIIAN ISLANDS 




tests for a suitable foundation. 
The contractors' bid for $4,000,- 
000 was accepted and work be- 
gun. The dock was to be one 
thousand feet long, one hundred 
and ten feet wide and thirty- 
five feet deep — a giant dock. 
Work progressed rapidly, the 
contractors receiving $1,500,000 
on accepted portions. The 
foundations and dock floor were 
built under water. When the 
work was practically completed 
and the water was being pumped 
out. the floor buckled, the side 
walls fell in and the dock was a 
total wreck. 

The Government has com- 
pleted an examination of the 
geological structure of the foun- 
dation and it is understood that 
Admiral Stanford has reported that coral and lava will not 
support such weight, advising a floating dock. The con- 
tractors ask for the $2,500,000 still due, claiming that the 
United States should foot the bill. It looks as if we may have 
to pay $4,000,000 for a short course of study in geology. It 
seems that while a coral reef will support a healthy collection 
of coconut palms, something more substantial is required to 
cradle a dreadnought. 

I met a man from Missouri who was a bit pessimistic as to 
our security from attack. "All this talk about making vol- 
canoes fight for Uncle Sam is interesting, but it's the soldiers 
that count!" he declared. "Yes, we will have 15,000 men, but 
we only have 7,000 here right now, and I'm of the opinion that 
we need 30,000 at least. Why, the Japs could land 200,000 
men within two weeks on the unfortified side of Oahu and 
they'd swarm over the place like ants. And there are already 



NIGHT-BLOOMING CEREUS, 
OAHU ISLAND. 



HAWAIIAN ISLANDS 57 

15,000 adult Japs living on the islands who would join their 
countrymen. You'd better read 'The Valor of Ignorance.' " 

A military friend eased my fears. "Oahu !" he said. 
"Why, we are making it as impregnable as human ingenuity 
can devise. We are rushing our men in and pushing the forti- 
fications. No enemy can attack our Pacific Coast without 
taking Oahu, and you needn't worry about this little island. It 
is ours for all time !" I hope so. 

There is a splendid highway around and across Oahu and a 
railway skirts over half the shore line, tapping important sugar 
estates. Schofield barracks is reached by road and by rail, so 
that the army people add greatly to the social activity of Hon- 
olulu, Sports, dances and varied entertainments at Schofield 
also attract the society element of the city and on the coast, a 
few hours' drive from the barracks, is the attractive Haleiwa 
Hotel, a favorite resort for Saturday night dances and Sunday 
sea dips. While Oahu may be a bit over-advertised by zealous 
publicity organizations which flood the mainland with palm- 
trimmed literature, bordered in sunlit seas and starry skies, the 
fact remains that the officers like this post as well as any on the 
list. They have enticed the Chinese cooks from the old 
Hawaiian families with the bait of higher wages, and in fact 
have taken possession generally. But why not? Are they 
not the island's defenders? "And none but the brave deserve 
the 'fare.' " 

"Is this rain going to continue?" I inquired of an old citizen, 

"Rain? Why this isn't rain," he replied, "it's what we call 
liquid sunshine. Don't you see that the sun's out? And look 
at the rainbow ! We always have 'em here." 

The truth is, the people do not mind the mistlike rain and I, 
too, came to disregard it. Under rain and rainbow I drove up 
the beautiful Nuuanu valley to the Pali, famed as the scenic 
wonder of Oahu. First past fine town houses and the 
royal mausoleum, where Hawaiian rulers lie ; then out the 
wide valley road lined with magnificent homes whose spacious 
grounds are a wonderland of tropical foliage ; up a gradual 
winding ascent, on the well-kept lava and coral highway, to the 



58 



HAWAIIAN ISLANDS 



very summit of the jagged mountain range. The Pali cliff 
in the Hawaiian tongue marks the divide, and here a view of 
amazing grandeur bursts on the traveler. Sixteen hundred 
feet below lies the hill-strewn plain, washed by the sea. Over 
this precipice Kamehameha drove 3,000 warriors in the long 
ago — so the story runs. 

The trade-winds which blow from the Pacific nine months 
in the year bring abundant moisture, and the great rain-carved 
peaks here seem to notch the sky. The wind is so terrific at 
this point that a small stream falling over the cliff is often 
snatched and thrown back in its course. Far below the place 
of its defeat is the verdant plain and sea-lapped shore, now 
seen through mist, now in a patch of brilliant sunshine. The 
Hawaiians of old believed that a god dwelt on these heights, 
gazing eastward over the waters from whence no ship had ever 
come. Pali is Oahu's lookout facing our Pacific Coast, which 
it is bound to defend. 





NATIVES MAKING SEED LEIS OR WREATHS, OAHU ISLAND. 



CHAPTER VL 

KING CANE AND HIS COURT. 

THE Hawaiian Islands have known many rulers since they 
thrust their volcanic heads out of the depths of the ocean, 
but to King Sugar Cane, the powerful, the greatest tribute has 
been paid. Of late his subjects have been in deepest gloom. 
Their king is in grave danger, they claim. He may recover 
from his present illness, due to low prices, but his very life is 
threatened, they declare, by the assassin, "Free Sugar." 

Captain Cook reported that the Kanakas were chewing 
sugar cane when he discovered them. They gave little time 
to its cultivation, focusing all their attention on the taro root, on 
which they fattened puppies for special feasts. Cane, how- 
ever, got a fine start, nourished by good luck, and in time 
became the dominant industry of the islands. Its story reads 
like an Arabian Night's tale. 

Fifty years ago the planters exported 250 tons of sugar. 
Last year the export reached 600,000 tons. This is the one 





PLOWING LAND FOR SUGAR CANE. 

59 



Go 



HAWAIIAN ISLANDS 




LOADING CANE ON FLAT CARS, OAHU ISLAND. 

product which has been developed to its full capacity and, 
directly or indirectly, all other industries are dependent on it. 

The islands are blessed with the best of sugar soil. For 
centuries lava has been washing down from the heights, form- 
ing rich tracts along the seacoast. These lowlands are now 
devoted almost entirely to the production of cane ; in fact, all 
the suitable sugar land has been taken up by the planters. 
There are fifty of these great estates, and they are owned, with- 
out exception, by corporations. This incorporating spirit has 
been so developed that Hawaii is the best organized business 
community in the world. Practically every enterprise, from 
a peanut stand up, is handled by a corporation. 

The fifty companies form a unit — the Sugar Planters' Asso- 
ciation — which is more powerful than the territorial govern- 
ment itself. It has well been called "The Hawaiian House of 
Lords." 



HAWAIIAN ISLANDS 6i 

Behind the Planters' Association are its mighty trustees, 
nine of them, although the great bulk of the business is done 
by five. As business men, they have conducted affairs with 
rare intelligence. It has been a case of farming with brains. 

Away back in 185 1, the manager of what is now the Hon- 
olulu Iron Works invented the '"centrifugal" for drying sugar. 
Until this wonderful machine came into use, molasses was 
drained through brush, the sugar never becoming very dry and 
always of a dark color. 

When the Civil War cut off the sugar supply from the 
Southern States, Hawaii's output jumped up to 9,000 tons. 
But it was the treaty with the United States in 1887 that gave 
the islands their real boom, when Uncle Sam agreed to allow 
Hawaiian sugar to come in free of duty in exchange for a 
naval base at Pearl Harbor. Since then it has been easy sail- 
ing. The former protective tariff of $34 per ton on the sugar 
of other nations permitted the working of thousands of acres 
of Hawaiian land which, they claim, but which I doubt, would 
not have been profitable otherwise. Today there are 200,000 
acres of cane under cultivation, an acre for every inhabitant. 
Lands have been reclaimed by irrigation, artesian water 
pumped to higher levels and distributed by flumes. Many 
mountain reservoirs have been built, feeding thousands of 
ditches. Imported fertilizer has been used with no sparing 
hand. Today Hawaii is producing over four tons of cane per 
acre, while Cuba's average is but slightly over two tons. Just 
stop to consider what this means : 600,000 tons per year from 
islands with only 200,000 inhabitants ! Three tons per inhab- 
itant, or fifty times their own weight in sugar ! 

Of course there have been problems to solve. A few 
years ago a wicked leaf-hopper devastated the plantations. 
Men were dispatched to many parts of the world in search of 
a parasite to kill the hopper. They found one and the cane 
was saved. Then there have been the labor problems. Uncle 
Sam excluded the Chinese. The Japanese struck for higher 
pay, managing to get $1 per day, with a bonus for working a 
full month. Then the Japs were prohibited from coming in 



()2 



HAWAIIAN ISLANDS 



and the planters were obliged to gather field hands from the 
four corners of the earth. 

Naturally, fortunes have been stacked up, with a crop selling 
close to $50,000,000 annually, one-third of which was clear 
profit. The Ewa is one of the big plantations. Its original 
stockholders put up $1,000,000 and received 5 per cent per 
month in profits. Finally they had a stock dividend and 
$4,000,000 in new stock was distributed among the share- 
holders. Even after that they received 18 per cent dividends, 
or 90 per cent on the original investment. 




FLUME CONVEYING WATER FOR IRRIGATING SUGAR CANE, 



HAWAIIAN ISLANDS 63 

"How many stockholders are there in these corporations?" 
I asked a man who sold sugar machinery. 

"Over 9,000, but they are small ones ; the bulk of the stock 
is owned by the Big Five," he said. "You see, the old mission- 
aries had the best chance to get hold of the land — the Cookes, 
the Castles, the Alexanders and others. Have you ever heard 
why Oahu is the richest island in the world? Well, it has a 
Diamond Head; a Pearl Harbor; the largest Punch Bowl on 
earth ; it is filled with Castles and all the Cookes are million- 
aires. But, seriously, the missionary families have been very 
liberal in giving large sums of money to charity and for the 
improvement of the islands generally." 

Early German and English settlers also acquired large tracts 
of land, many of them marrying Hawaiian women who held 
title to it, and a few full-blooded natives somehow held on to 
their property and are able now to live in idleness on their 
rentals. 

"What show is there for a white settler?" I asked an old 
timer. 

"Well," he said, "it's been a bit discouraging in the past, with 
all the best land gobbled up by the sugar kings. But there's 
still a chance to homestead on Government land which has only 
been leased to the planters, and now these leases are running 
out. You can imagine the influence that is being brought to 
bear for the renewal of the leases. The Government fears 
that even though the land is given to homesteaders, they may 
later sell out to the sugar barons, creating a land monopoly for 
all time. This has been the live political issue in Hawaii." 

And what will really happen with sugar free? I heard 
many opinions expressed.* Some say the sugar grower in 
Hawaii is not in a position to compete with the world. It was 
pointed out to me that it takes eighteen months to raise a crop 
of cane in Hawaii, while in Cuba nature produces a crop in 

*Note: — As this volume goes to press word comes from Hawaii 
that, owing- to the present European war and consequent higher 
prices for sugar, the feeling and financial situation in the islands are 
improving. 



64 



HAWAIIAN ISLANDS 



from ten to twelve months. Much irrigation is necessary in 
Hawaii. The fertihzer comes, mainly, from Chile, a rather 
long haul. Freight is expensive and the sugar can go to the 
mainland only on ships flying the American flag and charging 
higher freight rates than foreign ships. This is one side of 
the case. Some will tell you six per cent looks like a loss to 
capital paying ninety per cent. 

Then the Hawaiians fear competition from Formosa and 
Borneo, where labor is very cheap. The Honolulu Iron Works 
recently built several complete sugar mills for Formosa, which 
is now part of the Japanese empire. 





Some of the men I talked 
with were optimistic, believ- 
ing that all the plantations 
would continue, even with 
greatly reduced dividends, and 
that other industries would 
grow. They were hopeful that 
a new combined cane cutter 



HAWAIIAN PINEAPPLES. 



HAWAIIAN ISLANDS 



65 



and loader, just invented by a local engineer, would greatly 
reduce the expense of labor. The rough model did fine work 
and much is expected from the perfected machine. 

Pineapples have a great future in Hawaii. Last year over 
1,000,000 cases, of two dozen two-pound cans, were exported, 
and the 1913 crop sold for about $5,000,000. The largest 
pineapple cannery in the world is in Honolulu. The growers 
receive $22 per ton for first-quality pines and $14 for 
smaller sizes. Some good pineapple land has recently been 
placed on the market by the Government, attracting a number 
of American homesteaders. Pineapple juice is bottled and sent 
abroad as a summer beverage. A farmer who has ten acres 
in pines told me that he realized a profit of $2,500 last year. 

The algaroba industry made the deepest impression on me. 
I saw the original tree, brought to Oahu from Central America 
by Father Bertolott in 1837. Now the trees are all over the 
islands, and from the pods a meal is made for food for live 




CARABAO, OR WATER BUFFALO, BROUGHT FROM THE FAR 
EAST TO WORK IN RTCE FIELDS. 



66 



HAWAIIAN ISLANDS 




'^^M^i'M/^i\\ 



:^ 











IN A RICE FIELD, HAWAII. 

Stock. Two companies have been organized and the United 
States Government has purchased the entire output of one mill 
for use by the cavalry at Schofield barracks. Algaroba meal 
sells for $24 per ton and is considered a well-balanced ration. 
The remarkable part of the industry is that the pods begin to 
drop just as the school vacations start, so children gather the 
harvest at $10 per ton. One company plans to set out 1,000,- 
000 trees, and gather the pods by a machine rake, so algaroba 
meal may some day be popular all over the United States. 

Rice is cultivated on about 12,000 acres, but there is a 
general depression in the industry. Only Chinese labor is 
available and this is getting scarce. Experienced Asiatics alone 
seem to understand the work. Water buffaloes plod beside 
their masters in the mud, strong, patient creatures, imported 
from the Orient. The rental for rice land is high, hence it is 
difficult to make a profit. 

Coffee, cotton, sisal, honey and soy beans are among the 
lesser industries. Coffee is one of the oldest industries and 



HAWAIIAN ISLANDS 



67 



about half the crop finds a local market. The future for cotton 
lies in the controlling of insect pests, which have become the 
great problem of Hawaii. There are about 3,000 acres now 
in sisal, which promises to become an important industry. The 
island honey is peculiar, less than 20 per cent being floral honey, 
the balance honey-dew from the sugar-cane leaf-hopper. The 
soy beans are used in the manufacture of soy sauce, so popular 
in China and India. 

At the hotel I learned that the asparagus, artichokes and 
cauliflower served to us came from California and do not 
prosper in Hawaii. They have had every sort of insect pest, 
one of the worst being the Mediterranean fruit fly, which has 
played havoc with citrus fruits, mangoes, peaches, guavas, figs 
and avocados. Bananas and pineapples have escaped the 
scourge, so they can be shipped to the mainland. Plant pests 




OLD-TIME HAWAIIANS PREPARING RICE, 



68 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS 

once introduced on the islands run riot, as there is no cold 
weather to check them. An Italian scientist, dispatched by 
the territorial government to West Africa recently, returned 
with an enemy which fairly dotes, he declares, on Mediterra- 
nean flies, preferring them to anything on the bill of fare. We 
hope he may not be oversanguine. 

The introduction of enemies, however, is often dangerous. 
The Minah birds, brought from Australia to attack a pest, have 
chased about all the other birds off the islands. The mongoos, 
imported to kill the rats, have followed in the spirit of harmony 
among races, so noticeable in Hawaii, and wedded the rats. 
Today there is a new breed, half mongoos, half rat. 

The kukui, or candlenut, is native to Hawaii. Kanaka 
torches of old were strings of kukui nuts, ten or twelve of 
them, all aglow, on the rib of a coconut leaf. Today 10,000 
gallons of kukui nut oil is exported from the islands, used in 
preserving wood, as a paint oil, and, to a limited extent, for 
medical purposes. As a paint oil it is said to be superior to 
linseed. 

The most promising of the newer industries is that of 
tobacco, just emerging from the experimental stage. A cigar 
factory has already been started with Hawaiian and Filipino 
workmen. The ancient Hawaiians knew nothing about the use 
of tobacco, but when it was introduced by the whites they 
quickly adopted it and passed the pipe around the circle as the 
American Indians did. The old chiefs carried their tobacco 
in coconut shells and used pipes of great size carved out of 
whale ivory. Today the Hawaiians use the weed in the world's 
prevailing fashions. 



CHAPTER VII. 

SOMK GREAT VOLCANOES. 

IN CALIFORNIA the question oftenest put to visitors is : 
"What do you think of our climate?" In Hawaii it is : 
"What do you think of our volcanoes?" In truth, one might 
as well visit Rome and miss the Vatican or go to Washington 
and stay away from the Capitol as to visit Hawaii and not take 
a look at its volcanoes. 

Almost every other person in Honolulu will tell you that 
they have the greatest active volcano on earth over on the 
island of Hawaii. As a side attraction they offer the greatest 
extinct volcano in the world on the island of Maui. 

They do not advertise the leper settlement on the island of 
Molokai, but it has always had a strange fascination for me, 
so I determined to see it on my way back from the volcanoes. 
At the Inter-Island Steamship office we paid twenty-five dollars 
each for round-trip tickets, including visits to all points of 
interest except the leper settlement. We found that we would 
have to make a special trip to the leper colony, as visitors must 
obtain a permit from the Government. 

The rough sea on the inter-island voyage is notorious, hence 
we were pleased to learn that the Mauna Kea, on which we 
booked passage, is the largest of a fleet of six vessels, boasting 
a tonnage of 1,500. We were off at ten o'clock in the morning 
on a boisterous sea. The boat jumped about like an acrobat 
and nearly all the passengers paid tribute to Neptune. That 
day we "made" two ports on the island of Maui, but I kept on 
to Hawaii, which we coasted the next morning, counting thirty 
waterfalls tumbling down the verdant clififs marking its north- 
ern shore. We docked at Hilo, the chief city of the island, 
200 miles from Honolulu, after twenty-one hours of actual 
steaming. 

69 



70 



HAWAIIAN ISLANDS 



Hawaii is the big island of the group — in fact, larger than 
all the other islands combined. Its area of 4,000 square miles 
puts it above Porto Rico, and it is only a trifle smaller than the 
State of Connecticut. Hilo, with 7,000 inhabitants, is the sec- 
ond city of the islands. The sugar produced near Hilo is sent 
directly to San Francisco and New York. On the other side 
of the island from Hilo, called the Kona Coast, the larger 
portion of the coffee produced in the islands is grown, over 
three and a half million pounds annually. 

Hilo is, of course, nearer San Francisco than is Honolulu 
and nearer the Panama Canal, so is destined to be a port of call 
for big passenger and freight steamers crossing the Pacific. 
The United States Government is spending $3,000,000 on a 
breakwater which will transform the open roadstead into a 
safe harbor. The sun came out between showers as we landed 
at Hilo and the air was warm and muggy. A fellow voyager 
told me that it rains every day in the year here and the rich 
vegetation made me credit the statement. The city is splendidly 
situated, with the two highest island mountains in the world 




A PART OF HALEAKALA CRATER, ISLAND OF MAUI. LARGEST EXTINCT 

VOLCANO IN THE WORLD. 



HAWAIIAN ISLANDS 



71 



as a background, Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea, rising 13,825 
and 13,675 feet above sea level. From their true bases at the 
bottom of the Pacific Ocean, these mountains are about 30,000 
feet high. Clearly, there is plenty of water at this point ! 

Mauna Loa is the king of volcanoes. It has disgorged 
more material during the past century than any volcano in 
existence. Its great flow of 1855, alone, would nearly build 
Vesuvius. Kilauea, the great active crater, which travelers 
visit, is on the southeastern slope of Mauna Loa, about 4,000 
feet above the sea. 

The only standard-gauge railroad in the islands carries one 
twenty-two miles from Hilo, within eight miles of the Volcano 
House, this distance being covered by motor omnibus. We 

decided to go all the way 
by automobile and, equipped 
with heavy coats for the 
rain and cold, started on 
the thirty-mile trip. 

Passing fields of cane, 
we came to uncleared forest 
where there are many lava 
casts, or tree molds. Years 
ago liquid lava piled up 
around the trunks of trees, 
hardening before the trunks 
were burned away. Now 
they stand as gigantic vases 
in which small trees and 
ferns are growing. We 
came to a sawmill where 
huge chia trees are cut into 
railroad ties to be shipped 
to the mainland. This 
wood grows very hard with 
age. I was greatly im- 
pressed with the giant tree 
ferns in the forest, some of 
them thirty feet high. 

LAVA TREE MOLDS, HAWAII. 




72 



HAWAIIAN ISLANDS 




LOOKING INTO THE CRATER OF KILAUEA VOLCANO. 



After the twenty-five mile post we passed the forest belt 
and came into the region of recent lava flows. A sharp turn 
in the road, a whiff of sulphur and we were at the Volcano 
House, three miles from the crater. 

Next morning we made a call on the mighty Kllauea. We 
did not carry ohelo berries with us, the Hawaiian custom, to 
throw into the burning lake as a sacrifice to Pele, the volcano 
goddess. From time immemorial the natives have feared Pele. 
She It is who orders the time and season of eruptions. The 
brittle floss spun from the molten lava by the wind Is Pele's 
hair. Kapiolani, one of the noble women of old Hawaii, dared 
to defy this goddess. Becoming a convert to Christianity, she 
tried to break the superstition of her people by showing them 
that God was stronger than Pele. Making a pilgrimage of 
one hundred miles to the crater, she sat on its edge and ate 
the sacred ohelo berries, threw stones Instead Into the chasm, 
and said: 



HAWAIIAN ISLANDS 



73 



"Jehovah is my God. He kindles these fires. I fear not 
Pele. If I perish by her anger, then you may fear her ; but if 
I trust Jehovah and He preserves me, then you must fear and 
serve Him alone." Pele failed to "call her bluff," and the 
natives were greatly impressed, if not converted. 

The crater is three miles across and 700 feet deep. It has 
been the scene of terrific explosions in past ages, but has now 
dwindled to a small active crater sunk in the middle, like a huge 
pot. This is Halemaumau, "The House of Everlasting Fire," 
the Castle of Pele. This cavity is about 1,000 feet across, and 
in it is a lake of fire, a regular devil's caldron. The huge kettle 
of molten metal has boiled over many times. 

One of the most terrific eruptions on Mauna Loa occurred 
on July 4, 1899, a sort of Hawaiian celebration of the Glorious 
Fourth, their first opportunity after joining the Union. The 
lava flow came within a few miles of Flilo, the third time the 
town has been threatened. Recently a volcano and earthquake 

o b s e rvatory has 

" been constructed at 
Kilauea under the 
auspices of the 
Massachusetts In- 
stitute of Technol- 
ogy. The Govern- 




ment plans to make 
the territory which 
includes the volca- 
noes of Kilauea and 
Mauna Loa into a 
national park. Re- 




EXAMPLES OF LAVA FLOW 
AT KILAUEA. 



74 



HAWAIIAN ISLANDS 




TOURISTS SCORCHING POST CARDS IN THE HOT FISSURES OF 

KILAUEA^S LAVA. 

turning to Hilo to embark for Maui, I visited a school where 
Hawaiian boys are given manual training — the Hilo Boarding 
School by name, interesting as being the very one on which 
General Armstrong modeled Hampton Institute in Virginia. 

Maui is the second island of the group. It boasts the 
largest sugar mill on earth, a valley which is called "the Other 
Yosemite" and a volcano, which, though dead, holds the world's 
record for size. The journey to the summit of Haleakala, or 
''House of the Sun,'' is by rail from the port of Kahului to a 
point twenty-two miles from the crater, then by carriage or 
automobile for seven miles, the remaining fifteen being accom- 
plished in the saddle. 



HAWAIIAN ISLANDS 



75 



Sunrise at Haleakala is worth a more difficult journey, a 
view unexcelled in grandeur, perhaps, the world over. We 
stood 10,000 feet above the sea, on the rim of a giant bowl, a 
dead volcano twenty miles in circumference. There are two 
gaps in the wall through which lava poured in prehistoric times. 
Through these portals, at dawn, multi-colored clouds drift sea- 
ward. On the brink of this vast abyss, we felt we were above 
the very world itself. It is no wonder that people of all races 
build temples on mountain heights. 




SILVER SWORD. THIS QUEER PLANT GROWS IN THE EXTINCT 
CRATER OF HALEAKALA, I0,000 FEET ABOVE THE SEA. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE LEPER COLONYo 

'TT^HE famous leper settlement on the Island of Molokai is 
JL labeled "Tabu!" In the old days, before the white man 
came to Hawaii, all the common people had to heed the many 
''Tabu" or "Forbidden" signs, and offenders were put to 
death. Today the isolated triangle of land, guarded by moun- 
tain wall and sea, which has given Molokai its melancholy 
celebrity, is the only forbidden spot on the islands. As I pre- 
viously remarked, visitors wishing to go there must obtain a 
special permit from the Government. 

Molokai is not, as generally supposed, given over entirely 
to lepers. Only a peninsula on the northern shore is set apart 
for the afflicted ones, victims of a disease that is as old as his- 
tory and so terrible that centuries ago it was customary to burn 
lepers alive. The leper settlement is almost inaccessible from 
the rest of the island, as on three sides is the ocean and on the 
fourth it is shut off by a precipice 2,000 feet in height. The 
5,000-acre tract is so well guarded that there can be no com- 
munication between it and the other inhabitants of Molokai, 
and there is no way by means of which the lepers can escape. 

Twenty-five years ago there were 1,200 lepers on the island. 
The number has decreased to 622. In Honolulu there is a 
receiving hospital where lepers are first taken for treatment. 
Of the total 728 cases under observation, 623 are Hawaiians, 
forty-three Portuguese, thirty-one Chinese, seven Japanese, 
five Germans, five Americans and fourteen from other nations, 

"Why don't you stamp it out ?" I asked a doctor. 

"We have recommended that a periodical examination be 
made of every person on the islands," he said, "but it has met 
with opposition because of the tax to cover expenses. There 

76 



HAWAIIAN ISLANDS 



'77 



is no doubt but that the disease is slowly decreasing. Yes, it 
is a germ disease, and can be transmitted by the mosquito, some 
investigators claim. The mosquito is our greatest menace and 
we have played in luck to keep our two yellow fever cases 
from spreading." 

A Swiss scientist. Professor Raoul Pictet, who invented 
liquefied air, claims to have discovered a "cold cure" for lep- 
rosy. The intense cold of liquefied carbon dioxide, locally 
applied, destroys the microbes and the flesh regains its original 
health and color. This is being given a trial at Molokai, but it 
is too early to make any positive statement regarding it. 

At the recent International Medical Congress in London 
the head of the British Government's medical service in India 




THE LEPER SETTLEMENT ON MOLOKAI ISLAND. 



reported a number of instances in which leprosy had been 
cured, a new vaccine treatment having been successful. Exper- 
iments made on Molokai resulted in the efforts of the British 
to check leprosy in India. In recent years science has made 
great progress in the treatment of the scourge and the accom- 
plishments of American medical men have been of great value. 
Why leprosy occurs in certain places and not in others is 
one of the mysteries of medicine. The disease is mentioned 
in the earliest chronicles of man, references to it having been 
found in the records of the ancient Egyptians. In the early 
centuries of the Christian era the affliction spread all over 



78 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS 

Europe and every city had its leper house. For no cause that 
any one could assign, it began to disappear early in the sixteenth 
century. Climate apparently has no influence on leprosy, for 
when it subsided throughout most of Europe it persisted in 
Norway, Iceland, Spain and the islands of the Mediterranean 
Sea. In Asia it is to be found from India to Siberia, and it 
exists in many parts of Africa. In the West Indies it has 
reached alarming proportions at times. It has been introduced 
into the United States innumerable times, but never got a foot- 
hold except in Louisiana, where there has been a small leper 
colony for many years. If the United States were a country 
for lepers, the importation of African slaves in the early days 
would have brought the disease. The Chinese have not estab- 
lished it in our country, though there are a few cases among 
these people on the Pacific Coast. 

Leprosy is not so contagious as is generally supposed; it 
is communicated from man to man, but seems to require 
extreme intimacy of association. There are several forms of the 
disease. When patients are sent to Kalaupapa, the leper set- 
tlement, they are permitted to marry lepers. There are thirty- 
three non-leprous children in the colony, isolated from the 
others. In special schools in Honolulu are sixty-one of these 
children, born of lepers on Molokai, who have escaped the 
disease. 

Kalaupapa, from the sea, is a pretty place. A guarded trail 
leads up the bluff behind it. The houses are comfortable, the 
hospitals are the best. Everything possible is done to make 
the poor wretches contented. They even have a motion-pic- 
ture theater. In fact, life is made so agreeable that frequently 
a member of the colony, pronounced cured and free to leave, 
asks to be permitted to remain. There are ninety-three officers 
and assistants caring for the patients, who do a little in the way 
of agriculture, but who are really supported by the Govern- 
ment. 

In the leper village there stands a cross, sheltered by the 
boughs of a tree and inclosed by a plain iron fence. This 
monument marks the grave of Joseph de Veuster, Father 



HAWAIIAN ISLANDS 



79 



Damien, who was one of the noblest characters the world ever 
produced. Impelled by his love of humanity, he gave the better 
part of his life to the outcast lepers, dying a martyr to his 
devotion. Father Damien went to the Hawaiian Islands as a 
missionary and shortly afterward at his own request he was 
sent to the settlement on Molokai. He found conditions 
wretched. The water supply was unfit, the food was bad, the 
unfortunates were ill-clothed and ill-housed. All this failed 
to dismay him, and it was not long until he had made remark- 
able improvements and had brightened the lives of the hope-' 
less exiles. The world at that time knew nothing of what he 
was accomplishing with virtually no assistance. He built a 
church and even personally dug the graves of many of the 
parishioners whom he buried. Finally, when he realized that 
the day which he had not feared had come, that he had con- 
tracted the disease, Father Damien did not flinch. Instead he 
welcomed the misfortune as binding him more closely to his 
people; he was now able to say "We lepers" in his sermons. 
His simple, heroic life and death attracted wide attention, and 
the work he had done on Molokai, and the facts he had learned, 
proved of immense value in dealing with leprosy elsewhere. 
Other missionaries, of all faiths, have unselfishly devoted their 




THE BARKING SANDS/' ISLAND OF KAUAI. 



8o 



HAWAIIAN ISLANDS 




DEPARTING FROM HAWAII WREATHED IN LEIS. 



lives to ministering to the lepers, and the world can but recog- 
nize this as one of the noblest forms of heroism. 

Kauai is the most northerly of the Hawaiian Islands and 
the oldest. Its mountains towered skyward before its sisters 
were born. It is called "The Garden Isle" and is, perhaps, the 
most picturesque. It is the least touched by civilization, in 
spite of its wide, cultivated acres, and is an ideal spot for camp- 
ing parties and for sportsmen on the lookout for wary moun- 
tain goats. 

One of the pastimes that appeals to visitors on Kauai is 
sliding on the sands. The wind on the hills makes the sands 
"bark" and rustle like silk. To slide down them produces a 
sound like thunder. It is a startling and strange experience. 

The little island of Niihau, lying seventeen miles from 
Kauai, is a private estate, devoted largely to sheep raising. 



HAWAIIAN ISLANDS 8i 

Lanai and Kahoolawe complete the island group, eight in 
all. We saw Lanai advertised for sale while we were in Hono- 
lulu, so there is still a chance to become "King of an Ocean 
Isle." Kahoolawe, the baby isle, is so dry that it is blowing 
away. The rainfall there does not seem to be very evenly 
distributed. 

Very musical indeed is the Hawaiian tongue, even if it has 
only twelve letters in its alphabet. Many think it is sweeter 
than Italian. 

The heart word in the language is Aloha, used in greeting 
and in parting, the word which means love and friendship and 
remembrance and all that is best in life. Americans on the 
islands have adopted it, with the leis, or flower garlands, they 
give you when you leave, and as you stand by the rail of the 
steamer wreathed in blossoms, waving to your friends on the 
pier, you hear them call to you, over the waters : 

''Aloha! Aloha! Aloha-o-e!" The call is both a blessing 
and farewell. 



PORTO RICO 

Area, 3,606 square miles — Population, present estimate, 1,200,- 
000; according to ipio census there were 732,^^5 whites, 
50,245 negroes, 335,192 mulattoes and a few Chinese and 
Japanese — Capital, San Juan; population, about 50,000 — 
Governor, Arthur Yager — Chief products, sugar, tobacco, 
coffee, pineapples, grapefruit, oranges, sea island cotton, 
textile fibers, phosphate and vegetables — Assessed prop- 
erty valuation, 1913, $i/Q,2/'i,023; public debt, $4,8y6,'/4y; 
police force, '/oo men; military force, 5po — Exports to the 
United States, 191 3, $40,536,623; imports from United 
States, $33,155,005; foreign exports, $8,564,942; foreign 
imports, $3,745,057 — Highways, over 1,000 miles; railway, 
220 miles. 

CHAPTER!. 

FIRST GLIMPSES. 

MY INTEREST in Porto Rico dates from the turbulent 
months just preceding the Spanish-American War. At 
that time I had seen that the conflict was inevitable and had 
determined to give the readers of my papers first-hand infor- 
mation from the prospective seat of war. With this in view 
I hastened to Cuban waters and chartered the Three Friends. 
She was a filibustering steam tug that had done good work for 
the Cuban Junta, and had a record for speed. 

At the time I took command of the Three Friends her 
captain was under arrest for violation of the neutrality laws. 
The United States marshals were aboard the vessel to keep the 
captain in custody. Even when war was declared against 
Spain no word was received from the United States authori- 
ties releasing my captain. The marshals did not know just 
what to do, and I took them to sea with me and boarded them 
during my activities in Cuban waters. 

To keep the Spaniards interested the United States fleet 
bombarded Havana occasionally, but took care to do no great 

82 



PORTO RICO 83 

damage to the city, because we knew it would soon be under 
American protection. Before our fleet landed General Miles 
and his army in Porto Rico, I headed for that island with the 
Three Friends. A general order had been issued, however, 
that no vessels were to be allowed to precede the naval flotilla, 
and I was turned back. So, you see, I was interested in Porto 
Rico before the United States flag was raised there. 

Porto Rico (rich port) is an island lying in the Atlantic 
1,420 miles southeast of New York, about 1,000 miles east 
of Key West, 1,200 miles from the Panama Canal Zone, 
and 3,450 miles from Land's End, England. It approximates 
100 miles in length, with an average width of about thirty- 
four miles. It is fourth in size of the Greater Antilles. Its 
position is peculiarly favorable for commerce, since it lies 
contiguous to the English and French Windward Islands, 
the islands of Saint Thomas, Saint John and Santa Cruz, 
and only a few days' sail from the coast of Venezuela. It 
is striking and picturesque in appearance, a kind of moun- 
tainous tropic garden, with stretches of lofty table-lands in 
the interior and fertile valleys opening out upon the surround- 
ing sea in all directions. It is well watered and one of the 
most healthful islands of the West Indies. The present popu- 
lation is estimated at 1,200,000. 

The history of Porto Rico is a strange, romantic and, in 
many respects, awful story. From the date of its discovery 
by Christopher Columbus in 1493 until it came under the 
American flag in 1898, the island was continuously a Spanish 
possession. Being a small country, only three times the size 
of our smallest State, Rhode Island, the Spaniards were able 
to keep it under the iron heel of subjection through four cen- 
turies. The people who colonized it were a mixture of 
criminals and peasant stock and accustomed to a harsh form 
of government. There were no general revolutions such as 
made Cuba often a great battlefield, although Porto Rico 
sympathized with the sister island. Once a liberating army 
from South America reached Porto Rico, but it was unsuc- 
cessful. 



84 



PORTO RICO 




Columbus sighted the south coast November i6, 1493, then 
sailed along until he came to ''the last angle in tlie west coast." 
Here he landed, near the present town of Aguadilla, and filled 
his casks at a spring still known as the Columbus Spring. I 
visited the spot where the great discoverer came ashore and 
found it almost as wild as when he claimed it for Ferdinand 
and Isabella. Under the palms in an open pasture stands a 
cross, a monument erected by local patriotism in 1893, that 
commemorates the momentous event. 

The natives whom Columbus found in this region some 
investigators have claimed were members of the Carib race, 

+ but this has been disputed. The best authorities 
agree that the West Indian Islands were occupied 
at the time of discovery by three races of differ- 
ent origin. The race that inhabited the Bahamas 
was described by Columbus as a simple, peaceful 
people whose only weapon was a sort of pointed 
cane, while the Caribs were a savage, warlike 
and cruel race who, as nearly as can be ascer- 
tained, had invaded the West Indies from South 
America by way of the Orinoco River. Cuba 
and Porto Rico and some of the other islands 
were inhabited, it is believed, by a race originat- 
ing from the southern part of North America. 
However this may be, clearly the original inhabit- 
ants of Porto Rico were powerless to 
combat the aggressions of the Span- 
iards and became their slaves. The 
story is a terrible one. Some old his- 
torians believed that there were at 
least 600,000 of these natives. I 
hardly think it possible, because twen- 
ty-five years later word was sent to 
Spain that there were not enough 
Indians left to work the mines. In 
, 1543 the Bishop of San Juan reported 

MONUMENT ON SPOT WHERE 

COLUMBUS FIRST LANDED 

NEAR AGUADILLA. 



Irri 




PORTO RICO 



85 



that only sixty Indians remained on the island. The original 
number was probably 6,000 instead of 600,000. 

As was the case elsewhere, at first the Indians looked on 
the Spaniards as visitors from Heaven. They thought the 
white men were immortal, but Spanish cruelty goaded them 
into putting their theory to the test. Catching a settler named 
Salcedo, they held him under water until life was extinct. 
Then to make certain that he would not rise from the dead 
they watched beside the body for a number of days. One by 
one they were convinced by the odor of decay. When it was 
impossible to stay longer in the neighborhood they started out 
to massacre every white person on the island. 

One man escaped from a settlement on the west coast 
and made his way to Ponce de Leon, the Governor, at San 
Juan. On hearing the news, the man who was later to seek 
for the fountain of youth in Florida set about exterminating 
the natives. He killed so many that there was never any 
organized resistance afterward. In San Juan now an impos- 
ing statue is being erected to honor Ponce de Leon. In the 
illustration given on the next page may be noted a hoUowed- 
out place in the pedestal. In this small place will finally lie all 




SPRING IN AGUADILLA AT WHICH COLUMBUS FILLED HIS CASKS ON 

LANDING IN 1493^ 



86 



PORTO RICO 



that is mortal of the adventurous man whose greatest wish 
was to remain forever young. 

Christopher Columbus, it is only just to say, was not 
responsible for the extermination through toil and slavery of 
the natives of Porto Rico. Columbus left the island behind 
him immediately after discovering it. Ponce de Leon, learning 
that there was gold in the streams, began the real colonization 
of the island in 1508. The natives were given into slavery 
to individual members of these 
Spanish adventurers in lots rang- 
ing from fifty to five hundred, 
according to the importance or offi- 
cial position of the individual. This 
hideous proceeding was approved 
by direct orders from the King of 
Spain. He of course got his share 
of the gold. The natives were com- 
pelled to work in the water of the 
streams and toil on the plantations. 
They were beaten and sometimes 
killed. Not being used to labor, 
(they died rapidly, in fact, were 
ruthlessly exterminated by toil and 
abuse. Then the Spaniards brought 
in hundreds of slaves captured in 
Africa. And the men who did this 
considered themselves Cast i 1 i a n 
Christian gentlemen. 

However, Porto Rico was never 
exploited by Spain to the same 
/extent as was Cuba. At the time 
of the American occupation Porto 
Rico had no debt. The island was 
ruled by a military Governor. Gen- 
eral George W. Davis in his report 
to Washington in 1902 said that 
under Spain the Government was in 

STATUE TO PONCE DE LEON IN 
CATHEDRAL, SAN JUAN. NICHE 
IN BASE IS WHERE THE BONES 
OF THE EXPLORER ARE TO REST. 




i..' 



I, 




o 
u 

o 

H 
O 



1^ 



o 

> 
o 

o 

w 

w 



88 



PORTO RICO 



fact, though not in form, mihtary. The Governor was the 
supreme executive, legislative and judicial authority. 

In 1870 Porto Rico was changed, from a colony to a prov- 
ince of Spain. This lasted until 1874. Then it became a 
colony again, through the restoration of the Spanish monarchy. 
In 1877 2. more liberal government was granted. The trouble 
here, as in other Spanish possessions, was not so much with 



the laws as with those 
The Cuban revolution 
that in 1897 Spain 
Porto Rico autonomous 
was too late. Before the 
effect the islands had 
sessions. Except for 
or French, English or 
the coast towns, the 
measurably peaceful. In 
the Caribs were 
gradually, as the years 
from the other islands 
cancers, however, were 
was one of almost 




~^ ^r^ 



who administered them, 
of 1895 became so serious 
granted both to Cuba and 
forms of government. It 
new plan could be put in 
ceased to be Spanish pos- 
the occasion when pirates, 
Dutch men-of-war harried 
island's history has been 
the early times attacks by 
frequent and cruel, but 
went on, these savages 
were silenced. The buc- 
the real pests. The age 
u n i V e r sal lawlessness, 




STATUE OF COLUMBUS IN PLAZA, SAN JUAN, PORTO RICO. 



PORTO RICO 



89 



breeding bands of lawless men in different quarters of the 
world. The Antilles, these warm, pleasant fruit-bearing 
islands, became infested with groups of Englishmen, French- 
men and Hollanders, all enemies of Spain, and as bloodthirsty 
a lot of human devils as ever went hunting for gold and blood. 
The groups were made up largely of human refuse from the 
seaports of northern Europe. Ostensibly they were making 
war on Spain, but the movement crystallized in red-handed 
piracy that continued through many years. The Spaniards 
were bad, the buccaneers were, if possible, worse. Signs of 
the millennium were scarce in those days. Naturally, Porto 
Rico had numerous visits from these exponents of wholesale 
grand larceny, but survived to find real and, we hope, lasting 
peace beneath the folds of the Stars and Stripes. 

When we acquired Porto Rico we had no experience as a 
colonial power. The inhabitants of the island welcomed us 
with open arms, thinking that we would give them freedom 
just as we had pledged it to Cuba. As it was necessary to 
give some form of government to the island, an act of Con- 



■" -.-T^ 




, , . .. ^-. 


.- . "■ 


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W "^^^^H 


I 


^^1 '' 


, 


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1' 






^yp^VBMnt-'^^^^i M^^Uj^m 




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HON. GEORGE R. COLTON, FORMER GOVERNOR OF PORTO RICO. 
MUCH OF THE GOOD WORK IN THE ISLAND WAS ACCOM- 
PLISHED UNDER HIS ADMINISTRATION. 



90 



PORTO RICO 



gress, drawn by Senator Foraker, was passed in 1900. The 
Foraker Act, regarded by its f ramer as only temporary, is still 
the "Constitution" of Porto 
Rico. Although outgrown, noth- 
ing better has been offered. 

The Government is vested in a 
Governor, appointed by the Pres- 
ident, and a Legislature with an 
upper and a lower elective house. 
The latter is entirely Porto 
Rican. The majority in the 
upper house is composed of 
Americans, who are also heads 
of important departments, ap- 
pointed by the President. Thus 
control is always maintained 
through the power of the Ameri- 
■can members of the Senate to 
reject or change legislation pro- 
posed by the other house. 

The un-American part of this 
system is that in the cases of the 
American members of the upper 
house one man is both legislator 
and executive. The secretary 

of education, for example, will have a hand in making an edu- 
cational law, then he will be the person to enforce the law he 
himself has made. In the United States we are careful to 
keep the legislative, executive and judicial branches of the 
Government entirely separate. 

The Porto Ricans are anxious for a larger measure of self- 
government immediately. Ultimately they seek independence 
under American protection or admission to the Union as a 
State. The Americans resident in Porto Rico have the same 
point of view that I have : it would not be the part of wisdom 
for us to surrender the Government entirely into their hands, 
since they are of a different civilization, not looking upon 




HON. ARTHUR YAGER, PRESENT GOV- 
ERNOR OF PORTO RICO. 



PORTO RICO 



91 



matters of Government in the same light as the Anglo-Saxon. 
They really have no conception of the true meaning of equality 
and liberty. Political orators say one thing to the American 
and quite another thing when addressing an audience of Porto 
Ricans. They take delight in insulting us. Call them to 
account afterward and they say that they did not mean it, that 
their oratorical exaggeration was responsible. Yet the apology 
is made privately and the ignorant mass of the people are not 
undeceived. Nearly every American I met said that he would 
have to leave the island by the first boat were it given inde- 
pendence. 

The towns have their own self-government, but the police 
are under an American chief who has his headquarters in San 
Juan. There is a regiment of Porto Rican infantry that is a 
credit to its American officers. The Government was willing 
to admit men below the height required in the American army, 
because the Porto Ricans were supposed to be shorter in stat- 
ure. There was no need for this, however. All except one 
company are stationed at San Juan. This one is at Cayey, in 
the center of the island. It can thus be sent on short notice to 
any point where trouble threatens. 

We cannot teach the Porto Ricans anything about practical 
politics. At an election I heard of, the price of a vote was 
$3. The voters received a pair of shoes worth $2 and a hat 
worth $1. Looking down from a hotel balcony at the elec- 
tion crowd, the new white straw hats stood out among the 
dingy, discolored ones like daisies thickly scattered in a field of 




SNAPSHOT OF NATIVE VOTERS NEAR A POLLING PLACE AT 
MAYAGUEZ, PORTO RICO. 



92 



PORTO RICO 




CELEBRATING A UNIONIST VICTORY AT MAYAGUEZ, PORTO RICO. 

brown. One firm was said to have had orders for $600 worth 
of merchandise the day before the election. There is no more 
voting in country districts. The voters are brought into the 
towns, because supervision was impossible at remote places. 
One party would surround the polls and only let its side vote. 

Ten years ago it was worse. One side would even seize a 
town. At Patillas one election day the party in control of the 
town stood in respectful attitudes with hats off, while a funeral 
made its way toward the church. In the middle of the plaza 
the coffin was set down. Throwing back the lid those nearest 
began to hand out the guns, revolvers and machetes it con- 
cealed. In fifteen minutes twelve men were dead. Thanks 
to this stratagem, those on the outside forced their opponents 
to change places with them. 

As was the case in all countries under Spanish rule, the 
Roman Catholic was formerly the State religion. Since the 



PORTO RICO 93 

American occupation there has been no bond between Church 
and State. The present head of the Church is Bishop WiUiam 
A. Jones. He is a native of New York State, and for a num- 
ber of years was stationed in Cuba. As I found in my South 
American travels, the CathoHc Church in Spanish countries 
differs from that in the United States. Bishop Jones beHeves 
that one of his big problems is the Americanizing of his clergy 
in Porto Rico. 

''Outside of Arizona and New Mexico," he told me, "there 
are probably not more than twenty priests in the United States 
who speak Spanish. For that reason you can see that it is 
slow work. Since 95 per cent of the people here are of my 
faith, I am kept busy trying to visit every parish at least once 
a year. My church in Porto Rico is very poor, indeed, and we 
have to leave education largely to the Government. Where 
a man and his family may not make $100 a year, we cannot 
expect him to be a heavy contributor to the church." 

Since the American occupation the Protestant churches have 
established many mission schools. In these education is largely 
along industrial lines. All the larger towns have Protestant 
churches. Usually the services are in Spanish, except one 
Sunday in the month. Some churches have both Spanish and 
English services each Sunday, at different hours, which is a 
wise and generous proceeding. 



CHAPTER 11. 

PORTO Rico's PEOPLE. 

ONCE upon a time a historian wrote of the EngHsh people 
that they were hke a barrel of beer — foam at the top 
and dregs at the bottom, but with a good substantial liquor in 
between. I cannot say that of the Porto Ricans, because there 
is practically no middle class ; and neither can the upper class 
be called foam nor the lower class dregs. There is a distinct 
line of cleavage between the two, and the peasant under the 
Spanish rule always felt that there was absolutely no chance 
of lifting himself out of the peon class. He had to be con- 
tent. He seems measurably content today. 

Less than lo per cent of the population of Porto Rico live 
in towns of over 8,000. In these larger places there is of 
course a middle class of artisans and clerks, but these are few 
in number. 




AMERICAN HOMES NEAR SAN JUAN. AS WITH ALL HOUSES IN 

PORTO RICO, THERE IS NO GLASS IN WINDOWS- 

ONLY SHUTTERS. 

94 



PORTO RICO 



95 



San Juan, the capital, was built upon an island, but now 
is connected with the mainland by a bridge over the narrow, 
shallow channel. There is an American colony at Santurce, 
a fashionable suburb southeast of the city. Here they rejoice 
in an American butcher who does not send a square of beef 
when the housewife orders tenderloin steak. To the Spanish 
butcher meat is meat, and he cuts it off almost at random. 
There are several pretty American suburbs about San Juan. 




SOME REAL NATIVES OF THE INTERIOR, PORTO RICO. 

In the country live the vast majority of the people ; the 
small upper class of planters and the large lower class of 
peons or jiharos. The former have suffered from crop fail- 
ures and consequent financial reverses, but those who managed 
to live through the hard times are now in comfortable circum- 
stances. The planter has been nearly as improvident as is the 
jibaro. He was accustomed to mortgage his next year's crop 
in order to go to Madrid or Paris, where he would live like a 



96 



PORTO RICO 



lord as long as his money lasted, or until he had to come home 
to gather the next crop of cane, tobacco or coffee. Unfor- 
tunately, Porto Rico had several bad years in succession, and 
the banks had to foreclose many of their mortgages after 
carrying the planters for two or three seasons. Some who 
were once wealthy now live with their former peons. 

The physical and mental characteristics of the masses of 
the people are not easily described. Consider that during the 
early years of colonization no Spanish females came to Porto 
Rico, but soldiers, marines, monks and adventurers ; these bred 
with the Indians ; then negroes, almost exclusively males, were 
brought in, and these, too, bred with the Indians and the 
offspring of Spaniards and Indians ; then came negro women 
from Santo Domingo and added to the ''mongrel mess." Obvi- 
ously, to tell ''which is which" at the present day is not easy. 
From the original blend of Indian, negro and Castilian stock, 
and later crossings and recrossings, have come what are gener- 
ally called jiharos, the Porto Rican peasants. 

The jibaro leads an extremely simple life. It is difficult 




A NATIVE PORTO RICAN CABIN, PATCHED WITH BARK OF ROYAL 
PALMS AND THATCHED WITH PALM LEAVES. 



PORTO RICO 



97 



for Americans to understand him, since they belong to different 
civiHzations. He is extremely poor, but he is extremely proud. 
While he is accused of working only four days a week, it must 
be remembered that he has no incentive beyond providing for 
a day-to-day existence. The landed proprietors do not permit 
the peons to own real estate, and they can be dispossessed from 
their wretched huts on short notice. What incentive is there 
for a man to take pride in a home from which he may be 
driven at any time? 

Domestic labor is cheap in Porto Rico. In San Juan the 
usual wages of a cook is six dollars a month. One man I 
knew paid ten dollars, but his friends complained that he was 
making other cooks dissatisfied. Every one in San Juan who 
wishes to work is at work. Prices are high and the town is 
prosperous. Every day the street railway carries over 16,000 
passengers. 

The American occupation has brought about great changes 
for the laborer. Living conditions are being bettered and he 
receives a higher wage. When our troops landed, laborers on 




A WAYSIDE STORE. 



ALMOST EVERY MILE OF ROAD IN PORTO RICO 
HAS SUCH A STORE 



98 PORTO RICO 

plantations received thirty cents a day. The average now is 
seventy-five cents a day. The actual earning power, or 
efficiency, of "colored" labor has been more than doubled by 
better food and conditions and the dethroning of the hook- 
worm. This to a large degree has been accomplished by the 
scientific methods of the so-called Sugar Trust and Tobacco 
Trust, which have very large interests in the island. They 
have "speeded up'' the negro, you observe. The question is. 
Can the tropical negro stand the pressure? The Spaniards 
"speeded up" the indolent native Indians in early times and 
the Indians died like flies. However, present conditions are 
more favorable, no doubt, for the survival of the negroes and 
jibaros of Porto Rico. Nevertheless, things in this possession 
of ours are not wholly as they should be. For example, most 
of the States of the Union have passed laws against company 
and plantation stores, but they still flourish in Porto Rico. 
The laborer merely gets credit, and at the end of the season he 
is fortunate if he is not in debt to the store. 

Usually only a penny's worth of anything is bought at a 
time, the most expensive method of buying. When she goes 
to the store the peasant woman will buy one cent's worth of 
sugar or one cent's worth of rice. In the course of a day 
should she need five cents' worth of rice, she would send a 
child five times or go herself. Perhaps she goes on the theory 
of the man who refused to buy a cornsheller for his hogs with 
the remark, "What's time to a hog?" No one in Porto Rico 
is ever in a hurry. 

There never is a time here when you are out of sight of 
some human habitation. There seldom was a time that I could 
not, on looking about me, see some human being. With 320 
inhabitants to the square mile, Porto Rico is one of the most 
densely populated spots on the globe. Thirty per cent of the 
population are under ten years of age, a greater percentage 
than any other civilized country in the world. Notwithstand- 
ing the wonderful work of the American physicians, only 10 
per cent are over fifty years. In the United States the per- 
centage is 13.4. 



PORTO RICO 



99 



The customs and morals of every country are largely the 
product of geographical and climatic conditions. In Porto 
Rico we can attribute much of the present civilization to the 
island's formation. It is a mountainous country surrounded 
by a coastal plain never more than five miles in width. Upon 
this fringe of coast the population is mixed in character, 
because the negro loves the hot lowlands. Back in the moun- 
tains the whites have been more successful in maintaining their 
purity of blood. 




MR. BOYCE EXAMINING CACTUS IN THE MOUNTAINS. 



100 



PORTO RICO 



The Porto Rico peon is ordinarily a peaceful man. He 
never molests an American. I have been alone in the poorest 
quarters of the towns and upon the wildest mountain trails, 
yet have never experienced the least fear nor had the slightest 
trouble. They fight sometimes among themselves, using their 
machetes. These are knives used for cutting cane, the sharp, 
heavy blades being about two feet long. Once two men 
were caught by the police fighting a duel upon the public high- 
way. Although one man had his face cut to ribbons, he 
begged the officer to let the fight go on, as it was ^'purely a 
private affair." They were first taken to the hospital and 
then to jail. 

I asked many persons what good things there were in the 
Spanish civilization as I found it in Porto Rico that could be 
adopted profitably by Americans. Invariably the reply was, 

''Their unfailing 
p o 1 i t eness and 
courtesy." The 
poorest coun try 
man will make 
you welcome, 
dividing with you 
his simple repast 
of rice or beans. 




He will go miles 
out of his way to 
set you upon the 
right road, and 
feel hurt if you 
seek to recom- 
pense him for his 
trouble. That sort 




WAYSIDE SCENES IN PORTO RICO. 



PORTO RICO loi 

of thing is not very common in the United States, is it ? With 
us the hand seems always itching for a tip. Possession is the 
prime American motive. No doubt you remember the instance 
of the young lady who, after adjusting her finery, descended 
the stairs to the parlor and found the family pet sitting upon 
the knee of the young man caller, her curly head nestled com- 
fortably against his shoulder. 

"Why, Mabel," the young lady exclaimed, ''aren't you 
ashamed of yourself ! Get right down." 

''Sha'n't do it," retorted the child. "I got here first." The 
true American spirit. 

Before the American occupation of Porto Rico marriage 
was such an expense that few of the lower class were able to 
pay for the ceremony, a religious function. As there were no 
civil marriages, the contracting parties were bound by nothing 
more formal than their promises to each other. These were 
religiously kept. By an edict. Governor William H. Hunt 
legalized all these unions in 1902. Any couple can now get 
married anywhere on the island as cheaply as in the United 
States. 

In the poorer part of a town all the landlord provides is 
the ground. The tenant builds his own house out of thatch, 
wooden soap boxes or tin from gasoline cans. The ground 
rent is from fifty cents to four dollars a month. As twenty 
of these one-room houses can be crowded upon an acre of 
ground, it can be seen that the landowner has a steady income 
without troubling over repairs or insurance. If the tenant 
does not pay his rent he is thrown out. On the plantations no 
rent is paid, but the peon builds his own hut. What he grows 
on a patch of ground about it belongs to him. He is also 
given his bananas. 

The diet of a Porto Rican of the lower class is extremely 
simple. The meal corresponding to our breakfast consists of 
a cup of strong coffee and possibly a piece of bread. With 
no other food to sustain him the laborer works from dawn 
until eleven o'clock. Then he has a more substantial meal of 
codfish and some one Porto Rican vegetable, such as the 



102 



PORTO RICO 



batata, a sweet potato. About the middle of the afternoon he 
may have more black coffee. When he reaches his hut at 
nightfall he has his big meal of the day. This consists of rice, 
codfish and whatever vegetable may be ripe. 

Although the jibaro is fond of pork, not many are fore- 
handed enough to keep a pig. In one little settlement I visited, 
only one family had enough money or enough foresight to go 
to the market town and buy a suckling pig for one dollar. 
When this had been raised and fattened it was either eaten, 
or sold for twelve or fourteen dollars. 

I sat with a family of these people one evening and listened 
to their conversation. The talk was not inspiring, confined 
principally to plantation topics. It had to do with boasts of 
how much more cane the head of the family could cut than could 
a neighbor, and how much more coffee he could pick. The 
affairs of the plantation owner were also discussed ; but as for 
talk of the outside world, there was none. Thanks to the 
schools, conditions are improving. Another generation will 
put the peon on a far higher intellectual plane. 

Notwithstanding his hookworm troubles and his day-to- 
day existence, the peasant is not an unhappy fellow. He is 
bound to those of his class both by ties of blood and that of 
compadre or godfather. An orphan or a widow finds shelter 
in the meanest neighbor's home. The jibaro looks to the 

planter for guidance and 
protection. He regards 
himself as dependent upon 
those in authority over 
him. 

It is just as natural 
for a native to put his 
burden on his head as it 
is for a baby to put its toe 
in its mouth. As they 
passed me, I was remind- 
ed of the long train of 
negroes I employed for 




TYPICAL STREET OF AN INTERIOR VILLAGE, 
PORTO RICO. 



PORTO RICO 103 

my African safari. Here in Porto Rico, however, they have 
not reduced their clothing- to a minimum, although away from 
the main roads the inhabitants are more careless in their dress. 
The garments of both men and women do not differ from 
the summer clothing of the poorest Americans. What is dif- 
ferent is the usual lack of shoes. The Union party intends to 
introduce a bill for the purchase of 200,000 pairs of shoes. 
These will be given to the jibaros, and thereafter a man found 
going barefoot will be subjected to a fine. This will prevent 
the spread of hookworm. 

I first went from San Juan to Ponce by way of the Govern- 
ment road around the east coast. The towns through which 
I passed were of remarkable sameness. There was usually a 
plaza. Facing it were the church, the municipal buildings and 
the stores. Above the stores were residences. 

In most Porto Rican towns there is no one quarter better 
than another. A millionaire sugar planter may have a family 
of peons next door to him. He may live upstairs, and rent 
the first floor as a grocery store or bicycle shop. Most houses 
are built to the pavement line. In place of front yards there 
are patios, inclosed courtyards, at the back. Here the families 
congregate. In short, the architectural style is Spanish. 

In the homes of the better class, because of tropical condi- 
tions, housekeeping is far different from that in the States. 
As the insects would infest carpets, draperies and closets, the 
Porto Rican householder must do without the luxuries. The 
floors are often of Spanish tile. Instead of sweeping, you 
merely turn on the hose in your parlor. No food supplies are 
bought for more than the one day. Each morning a servant 
goes to market and returns with what things are needed. The 
cooking is done over an open charcoal fire. On arising, as in 
the case of the peon, coffee and bread are served. Sometimes 
butter, imported from outside, is added. The American will 
have eggs, also, because he is not accustomed to so light 
a breakfast. The next meal comes at about 11 130 a. m., and 
is a substantial repast. Then there follows the tropical siesta 
before work is resumed. The evening meal is at six o'clock. 



104 



PORTO RICO 



It is remarkable for the number of meats. (I am of course 
speaking of the wealthier class.) Potatoes are only a garnish 
for meat. Rice and beans are served the year around at noon 
and night. Most other vegetables are bought canned. 

On the way from San Juan to Ponce by the east coast are 
two large sugar centrals or mills. The one at Fajardo is 
owned by New York capitalists. That at Aguirre is owned 
in Boston. Both are little empires. The former has forty- 
five miles of railway to and in its cane-fields. It owns 25,000 
acres and rents as many more for cane and grazing purposes. 
In addition, it buys cane from other planters. The vastness of 
the enterprise may be judged from the fact that good cane land 
is worth $300 an acre and a mill may cost from three-quarters 
to a million dollars. Aguirre grinds all the cane grown 
between Guayama and Ponce. It is the second largest mill on 
the island and has several thousand acres of irrigated land 
worth up to $500 an acre. The mill at Fajardo is the third 
largest. 

Among the towns between these two centrals is Humacao. 







iiffl^ p^^ 




A SUGAR MILL, FAJARDO, PORTO RICO. 



PORTO RICO 



105 




A TRAIN LOADED WITH CANE. 




HOMES OF OFFICIALS OF THE FAJARDO SUGAR COMPANY. 



io6 PORTO RICO 

It has 8,000 inhabitants and not a bank. Money is sent to San 
Juan, forty-five miles away, for deposit. The rate of interest 
here, as it is in most United States colonies, is 12 per cent a 
year, payable i per cent a month. Another town nearby is 
Guayama. It is the terminus of a Government road over the 
mountains to connect the Militarv Road and San Juan. This 
cleft through the mountains, known as Guayama Pass, is one 
of the most beautiful roads in Porto Rico. 

I went up the pass as far as Jajome Alto, the official sum- 
mer home of the Governor. This is at the highest point of the 
pass, 2,400 feet above sea level. The view is exquisite. The 
valley is devoted to the cultivation of tobacco, and cheesecloth 
to protect it from the sun is spread above it like a vast canopy. 
It makes the fields appear as if covered with snow, and is very 
picturesque. 



CHAPTER III. 



HOOKWORM AND PLAGUE. 

WHEN the United States Government took over the Pan- 
ama Canal Zone, the first thing the Government did 
was to make it fit to Hve in. The first thing the United States 
did when it took over Porto Rico was to begin the work of 
improving conditions so that nearly a million of dirty peo- 
ple crowded on the island at that time could live longer, and 
that our white American officials might escape death in doing 
their duty. 

Thousands of Porto Ricans are alive today who would have 
died had it not been for the effective measures taken by the 
United States health officials. In their work on the island, 
which is one of the most densely populated places on the globe, 
these officials have successfully battled the hookworm, the 
bubonic plague, malaria and other scourges which had fastened 

themselves on the people. 
Like the other islands of 
the West Indies, Porto 
Rico has been menaced 
by leprosy, but this peril 
has now been guarded 
against. Yellow fever has 
been wiped from the list 
of Porto Rican plagues by 
our quarantine service ; 
smallpox has been driven 
out by the army, which in 
the days of the United 
States military Govern- 
ment vaccinated virtually 
the entire population. 

DR. B. K. ASHFORD, DISCOVERER OF THE 
HOOKWORM IN PORTO RICO. 

107 




io8 PORTO RICO 

When the dreadful toll formerly taken by disease is con- 
sidered, it can be seen that for nearly four hundred years 
historical writers had slandered the people of Porto Rico. 
Lazy many of them undoubtedly are, but the natives as a class 
have not deserved the stigma of indolence and sloth that 
observers from other lands have put upon them. Instead of 
being lazy they were the victims of an insidious disease. This 
disease is popularly known as hookworm, or anemia. It is 
preeminently caused by filth in hot climates. It is believed that 
the hookworm was brought to Porto Rico from Europe as 
early as 1530. It is still found in some parts of the European 
Continent and it is also distributed throughout our Southern 
States. In our country the danger is not so much from the 
possibility of death as from that of incapacity to labor. A 
person afflicted with hookworm cannot do hard work. 

The most disastrous cyclone in the history of Porto Rico 
swept the island August 8, 1899. The anti- American senti- 
ment was so extreme at that time that some of the people even 
blamed us for the cyclone. Since people were starving, the 
Government immediately established camps and distributed 
provisions. In command of one camp was Dr. Bailey K. 
Ashford, an army surgeon. Soon he saw that something other 
than hunger was the matter with the people. He discovered 
the trouble — it was hookworm. An attempt was made to rob 
him of the credit for the discovery of the scourge and its 
remedy, but now the medical world has acknowledged that 
civilization has him to thank for its conquest of a dangerous 
disease. 

'Tn 1900 thirty per cent of all the deaths in Porto Rico 
were due to hookworm," Dr. Ashford says. "The death rate 
at that time was forty-two per thousand. It is now only 
twenty-two per thousand, since we are also combating other 
diseases, such as malaria and tuberculosis. I believe that 800,- 
000 out of a population, at that time, of 950,000 were afflicted 
with the hookworm. Since the average anemic peon could do 
only half his normal amount of work, you can see how great 
an annual loss there was both to the laborer and to the island 
itself. 



PORTO RICO 



109 




SNAPSHOT OF COFFEE BERRIES ON A PORTO RICAN PLANTATION 



"The hookworm enters the body through the soles of the 
feet from infested soil. Those who work on coffee plantations 
are the most liable to contract the disease, because here are 
found ideal conditions for its transmission. The coffee groves 
are well shaded and usually undrained. Above all, the coffee 
must be frequently worked, thus requiring many laborers. 

"The peon has a constitution weakened by the damp and 
chilling winds. He has insufficient clothing, and insufficient 
and improper food. How can a man buy shoes, when the 
wages of an entire family may not be more than $100 a year? 
Shoes are an impossible luxury. Hundreds of barefoot labor- 
ers, therefore, congregate daily in the coffee groves. There 
have been practically no sanitary conveniences, and thus in 
time the laborer, tramping about everywhere, was certain to be 
brought in contact with the disease. If the plantation owners 
were forced to build water-closets, and the laborers" forced to 
use them, there would be no hookworm in Porto Rico, in our 
Southern States, or anywhere else. 

"The owner of the coffee plantation also was losing money. 



no PORTO RICO 

Even when he only paid thirty cents a day — in 1904 — he was 
not getting its equivalent in labor. From that date to 1910, 
inclusive, under the direction of the Medical Corps of the 
United States Army 300,000 hookworm cases were treated. In 
Aibonito, a mountain district with 8,598 inhabitants, every 
person was treated for this disease. 

"Unless checked, the feeling of lassitude noticeable in the 
first stages of the disease gives way to actual inability to work. 
The patient may linger a long time in this absolutely useless 
condition. The cure consists principally of a powerful purga- 
tive. In five or six weeks the patient should be restored to 
health. If properly treated all the worms should be out of his 
system by that time." 

Dr. Ashford is now a major in the Medical Corps with 
headquarters in San Juan. 

And yet the Porto Rican is not wholly happy or satisfied 
with us, notwithstanding all we have done for him. There 
has been a saving of hundreds of thousands of dollars and 
many lives through the efficient manner in which American 
doctors have handled the bubonic plague. Yet the ignorant 
people could not see the need for cleaning their premises and 
killing the rats that might harbor the plague. The landlords 
protested loudly against rat-proofing their buildings. 

Hit a man in his pocketbook and you hit him very close to 
his heart. For a couple of years, at least, there had been 
plague in the Canary Islands. Instead of trying to clean up 
there, the Spanish Government promptly pigeonholed the 
plague report, and let the world take its chances of being 
caught in the grip of a terrible epidemic. When the United 
States and Cuba began to suspect the Canaries, a Cuban inves- 
tigator went to Madrid. He bribed an official and thus saw 
the document setting before the Government the existence of 
the plague. 

As soon as the plague was discovered the Government sent 
to Porto Rico Dr. R. H. Creel, who had done valuable plague 
work on the Pacific Coast. This was in the latter part of 
June, 1912. The plague is called a "rat disease" because of 



PORTO RICO 



III 



the activity of the little animals in spreading it. A rat catches 
the plague from another rat. A flea bites the rat. Then the 
flea bites a human being, thus transmitting the disease. Three 
out of five persons who catch the plague die of it. Dr. Creel 
immediately began a determined war on the rat. He began 
to rat-proof, rat-poison and rat-trap. 

Forty trappers worked in San Juan alone with 3,000 rat 
traps. They put out six or seven hundred pounds of poison. 
Twenty-five thousand rats were examined in the San Juan 
laboratory. A rat catcher is paid seventy-five cents a day and 
a bonus of ten cents for every rat he brings in. There were 
fifty-six cases of bubonic in San Juan, the last one September 
13, 19 1 2. About that time the last plague rat the investigators 
have been able to capture was brought into the laboratory. 
San Juan today is declared by the health officers to be more 
nearly rat-proof than any seaport of which 
they know. All establishments such as 
groceries, warehouses, markets and res- 
taurants have been made rat-proof by con- 
crete floors, with concrete walls extending 
two feet into the ground. Dwellings have 
either been elevated or have been protected 
from rats by concrete. Rats that may carry 
the plague infest the thatched roofs of the 
native huts. For that reason the Govern- 
ment prohibits such roofs. The price of 
lumber makes shingles out of the question 
and the use of iron sheeting is becoming 
general. A cheaper and better roofing 
would be tarred and saturated roofing 
papers, like that made by the General Roof- 
ing Company of East St. Louis, Illinois. 

At Humacao people still talk of an epi- 
sode in which Dr. J. W. Brice, the American 
health officer there, played a leading part. 
Word came from Playa de Humacao that a 
schooner anchored off shore was flying 

AN OFFICIAL RAT CATCH= 

ER, PORTO RICO. ' 




112 PORTO RICO 

signals of distress. According to law the first person who 
could visit the vessel was the quarantine officer, in this case Dr. 
Brice. He put off in a yawl and went aboard in a driving 
tropical rain. The boat prove to be The Success from St. 
Kitts, Danish West Indies, under command of Captain William 
Broadbelt, an Englishman. 

''I told the captain to line his people up so that I could 
make my health inspection," said Dr. Brice, in telling the story. 
*'There were a number huddled together in the bow, all bent 
over with their heads covered from the rain. Captain Broad- 
belt merely said that he could do nothing with them, and I 
went forward to get them into line. Lifting up the coffee sack 
that covered one, I was shocked to find that I was gazing upon 
a leper. In the group there were six others — all lepers. Imme- 
diately I told Captain Broadbelt that I could not let him land 
because he had on board this dread contagious disease. 

*' ^Then we are all doomed,' he answered. 'The Success 
struck a rock off the southern end of Vieques and stove a hole 
in her side. I put in here because we are sinking.' 

"Here was a dilemma indeed. There were thirty pas- 
sengers altogether, including the lepers. They and the crew 
were prisoners on a sinking ship. The law would not let them 
land, and I could not see them drown. When the townspeople 
learned of the leper ship there was a veritable panic in Huma- 
cao. I was besieged on all sides not to let them come ashore 
Finally I found a way out of the difficulty. There is a small 
uninhabited island in the harbor and on its shore I had the 
boat beached. Here the prisoners of The Success were 
guarded during the eighteen days required to repair the vessel 
and get her out of my jurisdiction. 

"Strangest of all is how Captain Broadbelt happened to 
have his leper passengers. Just as he was about to sail for St. 
Kitts from San Pedro de Macoris, San Domingo, these lepers 
were brought down to the ship under guard of a squad of 
soldiers. Broadbelt was informed that they had come origi- 
nally from St. Kitts and that as the Dominican Government 
did not wish to take care of them he would have to take them 



PORTO RICO 113 

back. Since the Dominican order was made at the point of 
the bayonet, the captain was forced to comply. Then had come 
the added misfortune of shipwreck off Vieques. 

"When the hole in her side had been patched up, The Success 
was towed into deep water where she immediately keeled over. 
Here was another delay while the revenue cutter Algonquin 
was sent for to right her and bail her out. Altogether Huma- 
cao acted as unwilling host for eighteen days. Finally the ship 
sailed away and what happened to her after that the town has 
never learned." 

In talking with leading physicians I was told that tubercu- 
losis claims more lives in Porto Rico than any other disease. 
It is especially prevalent in the cities and towns. I did not 
marvel at it, because of the manner in which many of the peo- 
ple live. To bring it home to you, let me picture it in this 
fashion : Take your small woodshed on a hot August night, 
board up the one window, close and bolt the door. Then make 
six or eight people pass the night in that small space. The 
result is inevitable. Where one falls a victim to tuberculosis, 
it follows that almost without exception the others are doomed. 
They said in the towns that they closed and bolted the doors 
because they were afraid of robbers. 

In years past the little town of Barceloneta had the reputa- 
tion of being the worst malarial spot on the island. A few 
years ago in this municipality — which corresponds to a county 
in the United States — there was an average of 500 cases of 
malaria a month and fifty deaths. Now the worst month does 
not develop more than twenty-five cases, and none of these 
results in death. 

For these changed conditions the inhabitants have to thank 
a Porto Rican health officer, Dr. R. C. Vergne. He is a recent 
graduate of Syracuse University, and has brought to his work 
the latest American scientific training. 

"When I looked at the town closely," Dr. Vergne said, 
*T did not wonder that it was afflicted with malaria. Breeding 
spots for mosquitoes were everywhere. In some cases I had 
to threaten certain persons with punishment as the United 



114 PORTO RICO 

States Government administers it before they would mosquito- 
proof their barrels, wells and drains. The town has even cut 
down its banana trees, because right where the leaf joins the 
trunk a cup is formed that holds rain water. It is the ideal 
place for a malarial mosquito to raise a large family." 

Rum, too, has weakened the natives of Porto Rico. Some 
of the vile stuff they drink is like the miserable gin sold in 
parts of the United States, which has well earned for itself 
the name "Aviator's Booze" — one drop and you die. 

As might naturally be supposed, the cemetery is an impor- 
tant part of Porto Rican life — or rather, death. It is the cus- 
tom to rent tombs, and at one cemetery I was told of an 
incident that happened recently. A man came over from the 
island of St. Thomas to visit his grandmother's grave. When 
he arrived at the cemetery he was horrified to find the care- 
taker sweeping out the tomb in which she had reposed. 

"What are you doing?" demanded the man, hotly. 

"Well," replied the caretaker, "you didn't send money for 
the rent and I have just rented this tomb to some one else. I 
have just thrown your grandmother's bones on the bone pile." 

In a dilapidated tomb the only thing I could see was a set 
of false teeth. I was told that a pleasant profession is the 
stealing of wreaths from tombs and selling them again. 



CHAPTER IV. 

PORTO Rico's SCHOOLS. 

LOOKING into an old Spanish fort at Aguadilla, Porto 
Rico, near where Christopher Columbus is reported to 
have landed in 1493, one sees blackboards and desks and little 
Porto Ricans busy with their lessons. The fort has been 
transformed into a schoolhouse, the change being indicative of 
the difference between the two civilizations. The Spaniards 
came centuries ago with swords and guns. The Americans 
came a few years ago with schools. 

When the United States took over Porto Rico in 1898 there 
were 528 public schools, with an actual attendance of 18,243. 
The teachers and their families lived in rented school buildings. 
The teachers were subject to no efficiency tests and were inad- 
equately and irregularly paid. Now there are 3,000 schools 




A CLASS OF PORTO RICAN SCHOOL CHILDREN. 



ii6 



PORTO RICO 



on the island, with an average daily attendance of 118,000. In 
191 3 the Legislative Assembly voted an extra million dollars 
for education, which will permit of the employment of 800 
additional teachers and provide accommodations for at least 
30,000 more pupils. Over 300 night schools have been estab- 
lished, and at some of them trades are taught, including 
carpentry, bricklaying, plumbing and automobile mechanics. 

As those of you who are familiar with the history of the 
Spanish War will remember, the Porto Ricans looked upon us 
as liberators. They thought that we had come to free them 
as we have freed the Cubans. Events have since shown that 




A TYPICAL GROUP OF SCHOOL TEACHERS, MAYAGUEZ, PORTO RICO. 



PORTO RICO . 117 

it would be better for Cuba today if we had not given up con- 
trol over the island. As a race the Porto Ricans are polite 
and hospitable and I am sorry to say that in many cases after 
the war their kindness was grossly imposed upon. Sharpers 
who trailed the American troops took advantage of the unsus- 
pecting natives and caused no small part of the anti-American 
sentiment, which is now dying out except for the fanning of 
the cooling embers by political agitators. To save the good 
name of the United States, on more than one occasion the 
Governor has rounded up tricksters and vagabonds and shipped 
them to New York, and an American tramp is now seldom 
found on the island. If we cannot be proud of some of the 
Americans who inflicted themselves on Porto Rico, we can 
take pride in the greater number who are now there, and 
especially our school teachers. We traveled entirely around 
Porto Rico and several times across it, and failed to find an 
American school teacher who was not a credit to our country. 
They are a fine set of young men and women and the good 
they are doing is incalculable. 

Here is something that will surprise the boy and girl readers 
of this book : Every teacher who has had experience both in 
the United States and Porto Rico said that he preferred to 
teach the Porto Rican children. The teachers explained that the 
children of Porto Rico seemed more eager to learn than chil- 
dren of the United States, and that they are even brighter. I 
questioned the soundness of this view, but, as the children in a 
class are usually older than in a corresponding class in the 
United States, I believe the difference in years itself really 
makes a difference in the ease with which they learn. 

Some mistakes have marked the establishing of our schools 
in Porto Rico, but improvement is being made every year. 
The city schools are the equals of any in the States. The 
secret of this is that the schools are directly under Government 
control. English is the language of the schoolroom (except 
for a daily lesson in Spanish grammar), after the fourth grade. 
It has now been decided that the recitations in the lower 
grades are all to be given in English as soon as possible. 



ii8 



PORTO RICO 



The first day upon which the little child now comes to 
school in Porto Rico the work of making an English-speaking 
American citizen out of him begins. It is all done uncon- 
sciously, in the form of play. Everything is dramatized and 
acted. ''Come away, let us play," sings the teacher. Then 
the children play a while, to associate the idea with the words. 
"Run with me to the tree" is the next jingle. Taking a child 




HIGH SCHOOL CLASS. ROOSEVELT SCHOOL, MAYAGUEZ, PORTO RICO. 

by the hand, she runs to a tree in the school yard. It is in 
this fashion the children learn our language. Of course clean- 
liness is insisted upon. Illustrative of the difficulties encoun- 
tered in this direction a teacher told me how one day she said 
to one of the little fellows: "Juan, your face is fairly clean, 
but how did you get your hands so dirty ?" 
"Washin' my face," was the reply. 



PORTO RICO 119 

The same teacher related that one day she overheard an 
extraordinary explanation of the source of human language. 
A little girl was turning the leaves of a dictionary when she 
looked up and asked: "How did there come to be so many 
words in the world?'' 

"Oh," replied a ten-year-old boy, with sudden inspiration, 
"they come through folks quarreling. You know, one word 
brings on another !" 

The Porto Rican teachers must pass examinations in Eng- 
lish. The trouble with the English of the children is that often 
it is learned from a native teacher who still speaks with a 
foreign accent. This makes the pupil's English sound arti- 
ficial. But, as Americans have been at work for more than 
twelve years teaching school in Porto Rico, there is not a place 
on the island where some young person cannot be found to 
interpret for you. 

The form of salutation in Porto Rico is ''Adiosf Literally 
translated, this means "Good-by." Whenever a child meets 
you and wishes to open a conversation he usually begins by 
saying, "Good-by." All over the island I was greeted with 
smiles and "Good-bys." As is natural, Spanish is used almost 
exclusively outside the schoolroom. We are doing as well as 
can be expected, but it will be forty or fifty years probably 
before we can hope to have English in anything like general 
use. 

The greatest stumbling block is the home life. Just as 
many Carlisle Indian students revert to their blankets and 
ancestral ways on returning to the reservation, the school chil- 
dren of Porto Rico drop back to their Spanish civilization at 
home. How we are to graft what is best in i\merican life to 
this Spanish stock and make it grow is going to be a difficult 
question to answer. As may be imagined, books are not often 
to be seen on the island. It will take at least two generations, 
in my opinion, to accustom these people to the things in our 
American civilization which make for comfort and broad cul- 
ture. Of course, I am referring to the masses. 

An American school teacher who occupies the guest-room 



120 PORTO RICO 

of a Porto Rican home told me of the color scheme of her 
room. 

"The walls are pink,'" she said. "One door is green, a sec- 
ond is green and white, and a third is blue. The mosquito 
bar is a flaming red. The cloth over my center table is a red 
blanket. The floor has inch cracks between most of the boards, 
and there are iron bars on the windows." 

The native teachers in graded schools are paid $30 a month, 
and when a girl gets a position in the schools it is the custom 
for her relatives to quit work and assist her in spending the 
$30. American teachers in the graded schools are started at 
$75 a month. Through their work the standards of the native 
teachers are continually being raised. 

In the schools, as everywhere else, the blacks and whites 
get along most amicably. A black man, the same as a white 
man, can occupy any position his intelligence or wealth may 
secure for him. Those with negro blood may even visit with 
some of the best white families. There is only one place where 
the color line is drawn. In every town there is a club known as 
the Casino, about which the social life centers. No one with 
negro blood is permitted to become a member of the Casino. 

At the Jefferson School at Arecibo, the largest graded 
school on the island, it was an inspiring sight to see the 1,400 
pupils salute the American flag as it fluttered in the morning 
sunlight. 

At Mayagiiez, the third city of Porto Rico, the Govern- 
ment has established an agricultural college and agricultural 



JEFFERSON SCHOOL^ ARECIBO. THE LARGEST GRADED SCHOOL 

IN PORTO RICO. 



PORTO RICO 121 

experiment station. At the village of Hatillo the George 
O. • Robinson Industrial and Training School is conducted 
for boys by the Rev. R. E. Pearce. The school is the gift of 
Judge Robinson of Detroit, Michigan, to the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church. Having established a home for girls in San 
Juan, he gave this one for the boys. There were thirty boys 
in attendance. 

*'We are teaching them farming, carpentry and shoe- 
making," Mr. Pearce said. "Although the boys have been 
gathered from all over the island, not more than three or four 
knew how to plant beans when they came here. The trouble 
with the owners of the land is that they have made such big 
money out of crops like sugar, tobacco and coffee that they are 
contemptuous of all others. It follows that the peasant, there- 
fore, knows nothing of agriculture other than what he gets in 
the cultivation of these few staples. In the past a planter 
never thought of having a kitchen garden. Today they are 
becoming more provident." 

Speaking Spanish at home and on the street and then recit- 
ing at school in English, the children sometimes have a hard 
time of it. One boy sent the following note to his teacher to 
explain his absence from school : 

Dear Teacher: I am sick with the mumps. Tou know perfectly 
well a boy cannot go to school sick with that disease. So please 
excuse me while I mump. Your truly pupil, JUAN PEREZ. 

Another one wrote : 

Dear Teacher: I am sick with a -^old, home all day drinking 
medicine. Your dutiful pupil, JOSE DELGADO. 

Not only do they write notes from home, but they also 
write them in class and give them to the teacher on leaving. 
One American teacher is treasuring this : 

Dear Teacher: When you spoke to me about talking", I was not 
talking. I was sick. These words are no lie. Your sick pupil, 

PEDRO RUIZ. 

At the beginning of the school year a teacher asked each 
pupil to write on a slip of paper his father's name and what he 
was doing. One boy disturbed the class by his loud laughter. 

"What is the matter, Juan ?" asked the teacher. 



122 



PORTO RICO 




''I can't tell what my father is doing," he 
managed to gasp between peals of laughter, 
''because he's in the cemetery." 

Then the teacher was the only one who did 
not laugh. 

A school baseball game or a track meet in 
Porto Rico is just like one in the United 
States. There are the same songs, the same 
school yells and the same cheer leaders. I 
should like to see a picked team of Porto Rican 
athletes sent to the United States to compete 
with American boys. The records here are 
good. Ponce had a youth of i8, Cosme Beitia, 
who was one of the best all-around young 
athletes of whom I have heard. In a contest young porto rican 
at San Juan he won five events, won the relay in his Sunday 
race for his team, and was second in the clothes. 

hurdles and high jump. His firsts were: loo- 
yard dash, lo 1-5 seconds; 220~yard dash, 24 seconds; pole 
vault, II feet; broad jump, 21 feet, and 440-yard run, 51 sec- 
onds. You will have to look a long time in the United States 
to find a boy to equal those records on one day, I fancy. 

Here are a couple of stories that Martin G. Brumbaugh, 
the first American commissioner of education, told. When 
he made his first inspection of one school he noticed that one 
bright little negro boy always faced him. When he went out 
at recess and at noon he turned at the teacher's desk and 

backed out as if in the presence of 
royalty. He came into the room in 
the same fashion, turning at the 
desk and backing to his seat. 

"Why does that little boy act so 
peculiarly?" asked Brumbaugh, 
pointing at the little pickaninny. 

"Well," answered the teacher, 
"he has only half a shirt and he is 
wearing that in front." 




A RURAL SCHOOL. SUCH SCHOOLS 

ARE FOUND EVERYWHERE 

IN PORTO RICO. 



PORTO RICO 



123 




FAMILY OF TOLL-BRIDGE KEEPER ON THE RIO GRANDE. SOME 
LIVELY CANDIDATES FOR SCHOOL. 

At another place a pupil was not so particular. As he 
marched out of school, Mr. Brumbaugh read this astonishing 
sign on the seat of his trousers : "XXX Flour." 

Children who go to school in such clothes certainly are 
eager for an education, and they are getting it. 



p 



CHAPTER V. 

RESOURCES AND TRADE:. 

ORTO RICO has been called the "gem of our colonial 
possessions." Commercially it is increasing in impor- 
tance with the passing of each year. As a purchaser of Ameri- 
can goods the island now ranks thirteenth. The United States 
is Porto Rico's best customer. In the fiscal year closing June 
30, 1913, 86 per cent of the trade of the island was with this 
country. 

Porto Rico sold last year to the United States products 
valued at $40,536,623, a loss of $2,334,778. The drop of $16 
per ton in the price of sugar was responsible for the decrease 
in the total value of shipments to the U. S. A. Exports to for- 
eign countries amounted to $8,564,942, an increase of $1,732,- 
930. Imports from foreign countries were $3,745,057, a loss 
of $1,756,871. The total foreign trade was $49,103,565, a loss 
of $601,848 over 1912. 

As Porto Rico progresses, its desire to buy is bound to 
increase. Human wants and tastes increase in the ratio of 
increase in wealth and civilization. In 1896 the share of the 
United States in the world's commerce with Porto Rico was 
but 18 per cent. In 1901, the first year after the establishment 
of free trade between Porto Rico and the United States, the 
island imported merchandise from the United States valued 
at $6,965,408, our share of the world's commerce with the 
island that year being 71 per cent. During the year ending 
June 30, 19 1 3, Porto Rico bought merchandise from the United 
States valued at $33,155,005, a decrease of $4,269,540. For 
breadstuffs the island sent $7,655,353 to the United States, 
buying $5,069,527 worth of rice and $1,786,589 worth of flour. 
Cotton goods valued at $3,821,535 were bought and the island 
took $2,939,442 worth of manufactures of iron and steel. 

124 




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126 



PORTO RICO 



Other big purchases from Uncle Sam included meats and meat 
products valued at $3,211,247, and leather goods valued at 
$1,441,605. The commodities mentioned composed most of 
the imports from the United States, the remainder being as 
varied as the imports of any growing country, but not extensive. 

Notwithstanding the fact that unusual purchases were made 
for internal improvements, there was the large balance of trade 
in favor of the island of $12,000,000, nearly twice as much as 
ever before shown on that side of the trade ledger. This result 
would be more gratifying if it had been produced in an increase 
of the value of products sold instead of a decrease in the value 
of purchases made. 

As one can readily understand, the chief commercial center 
of the island is San Juan. It is the leading shipping point to 
the United States and foreign countries as well as the largest 
port of entry. Small freighters ply around the island. It 
sometimes takes a month for goods to go by water to points 




SAN FRANCISCO STREET, SAN JUAN, PORTO RICO. 




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128 



PORTO RICO 



off the railroad, such as Fajardo and Humacao. The port 
next in importance to San Juan is Ponce, on the south side of 
the island. 

Ponce does not show the same Americanization as does 
San Juan. Some of its main thoroughfares are wider, but it 
is essentially Spanish in its mode of life. Many persons 
familiar with both towns prefer Ponce to the capital. It has 
35,027 inhabitants. The first landing of American troops was 
to the west. Two days later, July 2y, 1898, the squadron 
reached Ponce. As there were no fortifications to protect it, 
under an agreement that saved it from bombardment, the 
Spanish forces withdrew. 

Ponce is the terminus of the railway from San Juan. It is 
the shipping point for most of the sugar and coffee produced 
on the south side of the island. From it diverge two roads 
over the mountains, the Military Road to San Juan and the 
road across Arecibo Pass to Arecibo. I took the latter, pass- 
ing through a rich coffee district where rain falls almost every 
day. From some of the summits of the mountains that shadow 




A REFRESHMENT BOOTH IN THE PLAZA, PONCE, PORTO RICO. 



PORTO RICO 



129 



Arecibo Pass both the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean 
can be seen. In the valley of the Arecibo River the palisades 
are of imposing grandeur. 

Coffee in this region sometimes does not make a normal 
crop because of the very heavy rainfall. The planters also 
suffer more or less loss through the scarcity of laborers, since 
so many of the peons now find that they can make a better 
living on the coast, where there are no dangers and discom- 
forts from rain and the hookworm. Coffee is a peculiar plant. 




NATIVE WOMEN SORTING COFFEE BERRIES, PORTO RICO. 

It here depends for its growth on shady, damp ground. Being 
a compact, imperishable product, it can be transported profit- 
ably long distances over bad roads and mountain trails. The 
Porto Rican acreage will probably not increase, however, 
because better means of transportation makes perishable crops 
more remunerative. 

The crop last year was the largest in the history of the 
island. Coffee to the extent of $8,511,316 was exported, its 
value furnishing almost one-fifth of the receipts from foreign 
trade. France and Cuba were among the heaviest purchasers. 



I30 PORTO RICO 

The coffee planters once occupied the supremacy now enjoyed 
by the sugar men because they had a favorable Spanish tariff. 
The American occupation took that away. The planters also 
suffered from the great production of Brazilian coffee and the 
terrible cyclone that swept the island bare in 1899. 

Arecibo, said to have been founded in 1616, is one of the 
most progressive towns on the island. Its streets are well 
paved, and the plaza is the most attractive I saw, with the pos- 
sible exception of that at Mayagiiez. The harbor is poor, and 
now almost entire dependence is placed on the railroad. 

From Arecibo I returned to San Juan in order to go over 
the Military Road which runs through the heart of a rich 
tobacco district. The mountainous parts of Porto Rico are 
usually in great *'hog back" ridges. On top of a mountain 
there is no plateau space ; between two elevations there is sel- 
dom, a valley of cultivable width. The Military Road, how- 
ever, winds its way through some wide valleys that belie the 
general character of the island by rolling in gentle undulations 
to the heights. 

The town of Caguas is surrounded by fields shaded with 
cheesecloth, under which grows the choice Porto Rican tobacco. 
The land is worth from $60 to $350 an acre. Since the Ameri- 
can occupation land values have been steadily going up. One 
tract that cost $8,000 ten years ago sold last year for $35,000. 
There are a number of cigar factories. The wages of the 
cigar makers average about $10 a week. 

In 1913 the island's output of cigars was more than four- 
teen times greater than it was ten years ago. Two hundred 
and eighty-four million cigars were made, one hundred and 
sixty-five million of these being shipped to the United States. 
The tobacco exported last year was valued at $7,000,000. In 
its manufacture a larger number are engaged than in any other 
manufacturing industry on the island. Owing to the demand, 
the manufacture of tobacco has increased at a greater rate 
than the production. The native cigarettes retail in packages 
of ten for three cents. Cigars cost from one cent up. The 
tobacco grown on the island of Porto Rico is not equal in 



PORTO RICO 



131 




FIELDS OF TOBACCO COVERED WITH CHEESECLOTH, ON THE 
PORTO RICAN MILITARY ROAD. 

flavor to the Cuban tobacco, nor does it bring so high a price. 

The divides on the Military Road are crossed at heights 
of from 1,300 to 2,000 feet. Cayey and Aibonito are tobacco 
towns. Beyond the latter the valleys are remarkable for their 
long and gentle slopes. When the road begins to fall toward 
the Caribbean Sea, in one stretch of six miles it drops 1,400 
feet. Off the road a few miles is the island's watering place, 
Coamo Springs. It is noted for its social life and its medi- 
cinal baths. 

There is a long plain traversed by the road just before 
reaching Ponce. Through it runs a river that gives a great 
deal of trouble when rains are unusually heavy. A downpour 
in the mountains converts it into a raging torrent. This is 
characteristic of all the mountain streams. Until the water 
subsides, passage is impossible. Not long since one of the rains 



132 PORTO RICO 

flooded Ponce, and one block from the plaza the water was 
three feet deep in the streets. 

From Ponce I went west to Yauco, a prosperous coffee 
town which boasts of the first public library on the island. It 
is seven miles from Yauco to Guanica, where American troops 
first landed. Here is Porto Rico's largest sugar central. 

The greatest crop in Porto Rico is sugar cane. The old 
tariff upon sugar was just the same as giving the Porto Rican 
planter a bounty of $33 a ton. The sugar men are very blue 
over free sugar. They now admit that they could stand a cut, 
but free sugar will ruin many. The average American con- 
sumes eighty-three pounds of sugar a year, and only ten pounds 
of this is produced in the United States. We even import two 
million short tons of sugar beets annually. Of course, the 
Porto Rico sugar formerly came in duty free, so Porto Ricans 
got the benefit, in higher prices, of the duty assessed on the 
sugar of other countries. 

Some of the sugar planters of Porto Rico went to 
Washington and for the purpose of securing a sympathetic 
hearing told how they v/ould be ruined if the duty on sugar 
were lowered even a fraction of a cent. The Porto Rican 
banks began to think that the sugar industry must really be in 
a serious condition. To protect themselves they began to call 
the sugar loans of the men who had told Congress that they 
were facing ruin. So it came about that several planters 
failed when there was no need for it ; and others had to do a 
great deal of explaining to make their bankers understand that 
they were merely talking to influence public opinion. 

The sugar exports last year amounted to 382,700 tons, over 
five times greater than, the amount exported eleven years ago. 
The sales outside the island amounted to $26,619,158, over fifty 
per cent of Porto Rico's external sales. Cuba, owing to 
climatic and soil conditions, can grow cane cheaper than Porto 
Rico, and the cane is richer in sugar. Porto Rico produces 
about as much sugar as Louisiana, and twice as much as the 
Philippines. Hawaii's production about equals that of Porto 
Rico and the Philippines combined. 



PORTO RICO 



1-33 



Although Porto Rico depends for the most part upon its 
staples, sugar, tobacco, and coffee, there are other products 
that are of importance. The shipments of fruit in 191 3 
amounted to $3,120,919. These included oranges, pineapples, 
coconuts and grapefruit. Coconuts are grown anywhere upon 
the coast. The citrus fruits seem to thrive best on the .north 
coast, although large investments have been made also at the 
western end of the island. 

The leading western port and the third town in size is 
Mayagiiez with 16,591 inhabitants. In 1763 the excellence of 
the harbor was recognized and the town accordingly founded. 
Other towns in the vicinity are far older. San German was 
founded in 15 12 and named by Diego Columbus, a son of the 
great discoverer. The island's oldest church is a picturesque 
structure which the Dominican friars built in San German in 
1538. When the Spaniards moved a settlement from one loca- 
tion to another they usually kept the same name. San German 
was first situated nearer the coast than it is today. Pirates 
laid it waste and the French sacked it in 1526. Then it was 
moved inland. 




THE OLDEST CHURCH IN PORTO RICO, SAN GERMAN, ERECTED 

IN 1538. 



134 PORTO RICO 

The assessed valuation of property on the island, which is, 
of course, estimated to be somewhat below the actual value, is 
$179,271,023. The per capita wealth, based on the census of 
1910, is $175. As I have said before, the American occupation 
brought great changes for the poorer classes, and wages as well 
as living conditions are improving every year. Porto Rico's 
total indebtedness is only $4,876,747, the per capita indebted- 
ness being $4.18 as against $10.83 in the United States. The 
insular Government derives virtually all the money needed for 
support from the customs and excise taxes which in the States 
and Territories go to the Federal Treasury. In this respect 
Porto Rico is particularly favored. 

A good indication of the growing prosperity of the island 
is the fact that since 1908 deposits in the eleven recognized 
banking institutions have doubled. On June 30, 191 3, the 
deposits aggregated $21,316,027. These figures do not repre- 
sent the banking business of the island, as many commercial 
houses, following the custom of Spanish times, are still per- 
forming the functions usually reserved to banks. There is no 
official record of their resources. 

The Porto Rican Government maintains a commercial 
agency at 569 Fifth Avenue, New York City. It welcomes 
inquiries and furnishes descriptive literature and specific infor- 
mation. Porto Rico is an agricultural country almost exclu- 
sively and will always remain so. Intensified farming will 
make the island more prosperous, and it is already being 
realized that this is the only progressive step, in view of the 
large rural population. 

It was during February, 191 3, that I visited Porto Rico 
with Mr. Harold Sanderson, president of the White Star 
Steamship Company. Before reaching Porto Rico we had 
visited Jamaica, Trinidad and other British island posses- 
sions of the West Indies that had been under British rule for 
three hundred years or more. After looking over Porto Rico, 
and comparing its improvement under United States rule with 
what Great Britain has done in other West India islands, and 
finding everything immensely in our favor, I said to my Eng- 



PORTO RICO 



135 




SCENE ON THE RIO GRANDE, PORTO RICO. 

lish friend, "Mr. Sanderson, what do you think of what we 
have done in Porto Rico in twelve years?" He just shrugged 
his shoulders and replied, "You people of the United States 
are wonderful people." I have been under every flag in the 
world, except three, and I know that the United States han- 
dles colonies better than any other nation. While Porto Rico's 
discoverers saw in the island the promise of gold, we can see 
treasure in its fertile soil. Located within easy access of the 
big cities and markets of our Eastern States, it can become a 
much greater credit to the United States as a colony than it is 
even now. 



UNITED STATES 
COLONIES 

AND 

DEPENDENCIES 

By W. D. BOYCE. 

Mr. Boyce, for his papers, personally visited all the Colonies 
of the United States, and wrote Travel Articles that were 
more popular, when printed in serial form, than his South 
American Stories. Possibly this was because they were about 
countries under our flag. He felt his work would not be 
complete unless he included the Dependencies of the United 
States. He returned to Cuba, after some years' absence, but 
did not have the time to visit the Dominican Republic or Haiti, 
but had the work done for him by competent employes. He 
does not seek to take more than the credit of carefully editing 
the copy and subject treated on these two Dependencies. The 
success attained in producing "Illustrated South America" led 
Rand, McNally & Co. to take the publication of the "United 
States Colonies and Dependencies," also. The first edition is 
ten thousand copies ; retail price $2.50. If it is as good a seller 
as "Illustrated South America" other editions will be printed. 



Four Separate Books Containing the Same Matter as 

"United States Colonies and Dependencies" are 

Printed by the Same Publishers, at $1.00 Each. 

^'Alaska and Panama," One Volume. 

"Hawaii and Porto Rico," One Volume. 
"The Philippines," One Volume. 

"United States Dependencies," One Volume. 



ILLUSTRATED 
SOUTH AMERICA 

By 

W. D. BOYCE 

The "copy" for this book was originally printed in the "Chicago 
Saturday Blade," one of our four papers, as Travel Articles, by 
Mr. Boyce, on South America. Owing to requests from many peo- 
ple that it be printed in book form, it was issued by the oldest and 
best known publishers of historical books and maps in Chicago, 
Rand, McNally & Co., and in less than two years has reached its 
third edition. Price, $2.50. For sale by all book dealers, or Rand, 
McNally & Co., Chicago. 

PRESS COMMENTS. 

San Francisco Chronicle — The author has a natural bent 
toward the study of the origin of the various peoples of South 
America, 

Brooklyn Eagle — A good book it is, every page bearing the 
finger-prints of a keen and capable reporter. 

New York Mail — Best pictorial record of travel yet. 

Pittsburgh Post — It is a most valuable contribution to current 
literature, 

Atlanta Journal — In the 600-odd pages of this volume is a 
wealth of human as well as historical and practical interest. 

Cleveland Leader — He gave himself an "assignment" to "cover" 
that territory and he came back with the "story." 

Utica Daily Press — He wrote as he traveled while all the sights, 
facts and events were fresh in his mind. 

Editor and Publisher — In all this book of nearly 700 pages 
there is not a dreary page. 

Florida Times-Union — Written by an American business man 
who catches the salient point of view. 

Houston Chronicle — Full of valuable information and of com- 
mercial as well as literary interest. 

Kansas City Star — An exceedingly readable volume of some 
600 pages. 

Troy (N. Y.) Record — A good substitute for an actual trip 
through the little Republics of South America. 

News, Salt Lake City — Hardly a page of this volume is without 
illustration. 

San Francisco Call — Recommended for the exceptional full- 
ness and interest of its pictorial contents. 

Evening Star (Wash., D. C.) — A wonderfully interesting, his- 
torically accurate, splendidly pictured and narratively delightful 
book. 

South American (Caracas, Venezuela) — A truthful portrayal of 
first impressions. 

Herald — Buenos Aires (Argentina) — A timely, interesting and 
valuable treatise. 



91,581,000 CIRCULATION 

W. D. BOYCE CO. 

(Established 1886) 

Daily and Weekly Newspaper and Periodical Publishers, 
500 North Dearborn Street, CHICAGO 

THE SATURDAY BLADE 

is twenty-seven years old and never missed an issue. It is a big 
newspaper, full of the big things that happen. Special attention is 
paid to news that continues from week to week, and new inven- 
tions and discoveries. At all times it has an expedition in some 
part of the world, for new and curious descriptive articles and 
photographs. The Saturday Blade is illustrated in colors, 

THE CHICAGO LEDGER 

is forty-two years old and has never missed an issue. It is a 
periodical with special articles and departments. The fiction 
stories are all written to order, usually topical, and with a moral 
that helps to shape public opinion in favor of Justice, Right and 
the Nobility of Labor, It is handsomely illustrated in colors. 

THE FARMING BUSINESS 

Successor to the Weekly Inter-Ocean Farmer. 

This publication had its foundation in the subscription list 
(80,000 subscribers) to the Weekly Inter-Ocean Parmer, for forty- 
two years a prosperous weekly, reaching the people in the country 
for several hundred miles around Chicago. Knowing that there 
were many publications reaching the farmer and owners of farms 
that were telling the agriculturist how to do things he knew as 
much about as the editor — we believed the new and useful field 
was in publishing a farm paper with the slogan, "The Application 
of Practical Business Principles to Agriculture," and our success 
was instantaneous, as we had found a free and unoccupied field. 

INDIANA DAILY TIMES, 
INDIANAPOLIS, IND., 

is owned by W. D. Boyce Co. It is a popular Afternoon Indepen- 
dent Daily of over 60,000 copies daily and rapidly growing. Cir- 
culation doubled in past two years. The motto the Daily Times 
lives up to is: "A square deal and fair play for everybody." 

TOTAL ANNUAL CIRCULATION OF THE FOUR PUBLICATIONS 

Ninety-one Million Five Hundred and 
Eighty-one Thousand 



